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STANDARD POULTRY 
FOR EXHIBITION 



A Complete Manual of the Methods of Expert Exhibitors in Growing, 
Selecting, Conditioning, Training and Showing Poultry— Fully 
Describing Fitting Processes and Exposing Faking Practices— 
Briefly Explaining Judging for the Amateur and Fur- 
nishing the Student of Judging an Exhaustive Analy- 
sis of the History, Philosophy and Merits of 
Comparison and Score - Card Systems 



By JOHN H. ROBINSON 



Illustrated by Franklane L. Sewell 
Arthur O. Schilling, Contributing 



PRICE TWO DOLLARS 



Copyright by 

RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Quincy, Illinois 

1921 



Published by 

RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING CO. 
QUINCY, ILLINOIS, U. S. A. 



CONTENTS 



t 



\£ 



INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 
The Service of the Poultry Show 7 

CHAPTER II 
Fundamental Things About Judging and Judges I 7 

CHAPTER III 
Ethics of Fitting and Fixing Birds for Exhibition 23 

CHAPTER IV 
The Inalienable Rights of Exhibition Birds 27 

CHAPTER V 
Early Selection and Care of Exhibition Birds 30 

CHAPTER VI 
General Care of Exhibition Stock in Summer 41 

CHAPTER VII 
Preliminary Work in Fitting Exhibition Birds 50 

CHAPTER VIII 
Definite Selection of Birds for Exhibition 57 

CHAPTER IX 

Special Fitting of Birds for Exhibition , |)3 

CHAPTER X 
Care of Exhibition Birds in Transit and at Shows 139 

CHAPTER XI 
Analysis of Methods of Judging ....153 

CHAPTER XII 
Philosophy of Judging and Relation of Judging Systems 161 

CHAPTER XIII 

Logical Development in Judging Practice 168 

Index ....* 176 



©CLA617613 

■--'• 






INTRODUCTION 



TO realize fully the rewards of ability to produce poul- 
try of improved breeds and varieties, one must have 
the same mastery of the arts of exhibiting as of the 
arts of breeding. The truth of this will be readily admitted 
by anyone who has even a casual acquaintance with condi- 
tions affecting the winning of prizes in a competition of 
any kind. 

An equally important fact, not so easily apparent 
when put in the form of a general statement, is that to ac- 
quire surpassing skill in the 
breeding of any hind one 
must know by experience 
many things that observation 
shows are learned only in the 
keen competition of the show 
room. 

Theoretically it should be 
possible for a person with 
some natural capacity for 
this kind of work to produce 
masterpieces wit out the 
stimulus of competition. A 
few cases might be found 
where breeders are produc- 
ing wonderfully fine stock in 
varieties in which there is in 
general little interest and no 
other breeder approaches 
them. But these are not ex- 
ceptions to the rule, for in 
every such case it will be 
found that the breeder at 
some stage of his career 
learned the lessons that are 
taught only by competition. 

So it is necessary for the 
breeder who would excel in 
breeding to show frequently 
against others of about the 
same experience and skill. If 
one only cares to have a rep- 
utation that will enable him 
to sell fair-quality stock at a 
moderate profit he may often 
protect his commercial inter- 
ests best by showing where 
he can easily win, avoiding 
places where he would have 
a real contest, but those who 
do will never become first- 
class breeders nor will they 
ever get much honor among breeders, or attain a position 
where the highest rewards may be theirs. 

The rewards of ability to produce Standard poultry 
of high quality are fame and fortune proportionate to the 
popularity of the variety shown and the prestige of the 
show at which it is exhibited. A winning at the smallest 
local show carries with it some credit. A winning with a 
popular variety at a show of any importance makes one 
quite widely known as a breeder and opens the way to 




the development of quite a business in the sale of eggs for 
hatching and stock for breeding and exhibiting purposes, 
— if he is in a position to supply the demand. Consistent 
winning in any variety at a leading show or shows brings 
more fame and larger opportunities for doing business. 
Preeminence in competition in a popular variety at lead- 
ing shows enables one to develop a business running into 
six figures annually — provided he has the business ability. 
Lacking the business capacity to organize and success- 
fully conduct a big poultry 
business, the skilled breeder 
may still realize a very com- 
fortable income from the sale 
of specimens of extraordi- 
nary quality and value. Some 
idea of the range of top pric- 
es for exhibition and breed- 
ing poultry is given by the 
prices mentioned in the leg- 
ends under the pictures of 
the high-priced birds in the 
accompanying illustrations. 
Such extreme high prices are 
of course not common, yet 
the ordinary prices for really 
good birds in any popular 
variety are high enough to 
make the business of breed- 
ing them very profitable. Al- 
so, contrary to the general 
opinion, prices for the best 
stock are remarkably stable. 
When demand in general 
slackens, through over-pro- 
duction, or for any other 
reason, the prices for the 
best birds are least affected. 
In a popular variety they will 
always sell at high prices; 
not as high in periods of fi- 
nancial stringency as when 
business in general is good, 
yet always at a good profit. 

The reason for this is 
that the money value of the 
birds is determined by their 
desirability to people who 
are able to indulge their de- 
sire to have the best of ev- 
erything who take an -inter- 
est in fine fowls. This class 
of people may be divided as to their interest in poultry into 
those who will pay liberally for fine specimens, especially 
those with a prize record, simply as ornaments for their 
ground or to satisfy their ambition to have the best; and 
those who consider either wholly or in part the breeding 
value of the birds. These two groups bid against each oth- 
er and against the professional breeder who can often af- 
ford to pay a very high price for a bird either to use in his 
own yards or to keep it out of a competitor's hands. 



"OLD CHAMPION" 
.'mouth Rock male for which Wm. Barry 
d Harry Graves .$1,500 — with photographs 
of the checks given in payment 



INTRODUCTION 



While the number of birds that command extreme 
high prices is relatively small, and the demand compara- 
tively limited, the prices established serve to raise some- 
what the whole range of prices of Standard-bred stock 
and eggs for hatching, and to stimulate powerfully the 
interest in poultry of highest exhibition quality. 

The sale of eggs for hatching 
introduces in the exhibition poultry 
industry an element not present in 
any similar line. There is in it an 
element of chance not elsewhere 
present but the chances run both 
ways. A buyer may get less value 
than he pays for, and he may get 
very much more. In the writer's 
experience and observation the 
buyer of eggs from any reputable 
breeder gets on the average rather 
more value for his money than 
when he buys birds. In buying 
small lots of eggs he is not as 
likely to get birds that he can mate 
to advantage as when he is able to 
go to a breeder with a large selec- 
tion and buy mature birds that meet 
his requirements, but he is very 
apt to have one or more specimens 
worth much more than the eggs 
cost — perhaps a single specimen 
that he could not buy for many 
times what it has cost him. And 
having found the money spent for 
eggs a profitable investment, he 
will usually feel justified in buying 
a breeding bird or birds to mate 
with what he has at prices he would 
no doubt have considered prohibitive in the first place. 

Many hundreds of cases occur annually where a very 
moderate investment in high-priced eggs for hatching 
furnishes a nu- 
cleus of breed- 
ing stock from 
which the own- 
er, by sales of 
birds he does 
not need at such 
prices as he can 
obtain, and buy- 
ing with the 
proceeds a 
smaller number 
of better birds, 
soon has a 
stock with 
which he can 
exhibit success- 
fully in good 
competition. It 
is with this pos- 
sib'lity in view 
that men and 
women have to 
look at every 
dollar before 
they decide to pay $20.00 and $25.00 for thirteen or fif- 
teen eggs, and that in a few cases men have readily 
paid $5.00 each for eggs secured from special matings. 




White Wya 




Thompso 



The sale of eggs for hatching gives the people of small 
means the opportunity to get stock of the best lines. If 
they are able to breed it successfully when they get it, 
there is always before them the possibility of getting high- 
ly profitable prices for a large part of the birds they raise. 
If they can produce really first-class specimens they will 
always get good prices for such of 
these as they have to sell. There 
is no reason to anticipate that the 
readiness of people of abundant 
means to pay big prices for this 
class of stock will diminish. On 
the contrary the prospects are that 
it will increase, — that more and 
more people will want the finest 
creations of the poultry breeder's 
art and that with an increasing 
proportion of them higher prices 
will seem to add to the desirability 
of the birds. 

The two things that can con- 
tribute most to this result are 
breeding to get the highest propor- 
tion of birds of finest quality, and 
then showing the birds in their 
best possible condition. The class 
of buyers who will pay $100.00 to 
$200.00 each for five fowls to put 
on the lawn of a beautiful country 
estate can be made many times 
larger than it is by increasing the 
supply of the class of birds they 
want and by showing them in prop- 
er form. At the same time the 
class of well-to-do buyers who be- 
come interested in breeding will 
increase at a similar rate. It is in no way discreditable to 
them, and it is to the benefit of breeders in general that 
they buy results for which those who have to count the 

cost must work 
for years. 

On the other 
hand, the fact 
that it is possi- 
ble with a very 
small initial out- 
lay for people 
of moderate 
means to have 
Standard exhibi- 
tion poultry of 
the highest 
grade of quality 
enables them to 
indulge a taste 
for fine stock 
when they could 
not do it in any 
other line, and 
the result has 
been a commun- 
ity of interest 
between rich 
and poor "fan- 
ciers" not found elsewhere. Many a small breeder who 
would consider it the height of folly for him to buy a bird 
of rare quality at the price he would have to pay another 



"SENSATION" 
iotte cockerel for which Joh 
Martin refused $1,000 




A PRICELESS PAIR OF ROCKS 
Barred Rock cockerel and pullet, Madison Square Garden. 
These hirds could not be bought at any price 



INTRODUCTION 




$500 



RED COCKEREL 



for it, will see nothing inconsistent in refusing to sell at 
any price a bird of like character that he has raised. Not 
having spent money earned in his regular work for his 
poultry, he feels justified in indulging in a luxury which 
only the wealthy can afford to buy outright. 

Where the 
small breeder has 
been most heavily 
handicapped in his 
competition with 
commercial breed- 
ers and amateurs 
of more means has 
been in the matter 
of attending shows 
where the birds 
were well - fitted 
and having the op- 
portunity to learn 
there what consti- 
tutes good fitting 
and the methods 
employed. In the 
majority of cases 
these shows are 
either inaccessible 
to him, or when he 
attends them he 

does not remain long enough to make the acquaintance of 
many exhibitors and through them to pick up the profes- 
sional's knowledge of the arts of ex- 
hibiting. 

It is the object of this book to give 
him that knowledge — to thoroughly in- 
form him on everything relating to the 
subject, and to enable him to show his 
stock to the best possible advantage. As 
the reader becomes familiar with the 
contents of the book he will realize 
more and more that while it may occa- 
sionally profit an exhibitor to use meth- 
ods that are commonly regarded as un- 
fair, success in exhibiting is, as a rule, 
dependent upon good work in breed- 
ing and growing stock, and upon care- 
ful attention to the unquestionably le- 
gitimate methods of conditioning. Many 
more exhibitors are beaten through 
lack of attention to these than by "fak- 
ing" on the part of their competitors. 

The real service to the exhibitor of 
the information about practices com- 
monly regarded as unfair is to enable 
him to detect them, or where they cannot be proved to 



A $500 R. I. RED PULLET 
parties to the transactions did not give prices for publication, but accordi 
credible reports the figure in each case was $500 




form a reasonably correct opinion of the probable grounds 
of suspicion and so be properly on guard in future compe- 
titions or dealings with suspected persons. As the reader 
will observe most of the forms of "wrongful practice" get 
by when conditions of time or light are against 

the judge, or when 
the exhibitor is 
given the benefit 
of the doubt. In 
discussing each 
practice the author 
has tried to show 
fairly the attitude 
of judges toward 
it. Reviewing this 
work as completed 
and considering 
the point in the 
light of the observ- 
ed tendency of 
judges, this season 
to be more severe 
in doubtful cases, 
he feels that he 
should advise the 
reader that from 
present indications 
judges are not go- 
ing to be as liberal in applying that rule as 
has been the custom heretofore, and more of them will 
pass suspected birds by and let the ex- 
hibitor invite a most searching exami- 
nation of his birds by challenging their 
decisions if he will. Just how far this 
will go cannot be foreseen, but with 
that tendency among judges and with 
the wider knowledge of methods of de- 
tecting faking that this book will give, 
it seems as certain that the hazards of 
faking will be increased, as that the ad- 
vantage of legitimate fitting will con- 
stantly become greater. 

It will also be distinctly to the ad- 
vantage of the greater number of ex- 
hibitors who frequently find themselves 
in competition with better birds than 
their own to keep always in mind the 
fact that in general a well-fitted bird 
can win over a much better bird that 
has not been properly conditioned and 
groomed, and that it is right that it 
should. The better a bird is, the less 
excuse for an exhibitor who neglects to 
do all that the legitimate arts of conditioning can do for it. 



WHITE LEGHORN COCKEREL 
SOLD FOR $500 



nest Kellerstrass. $7,500 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE 




FIFTY YEARS PROGRESS IN STANDARD MAKING 



Above — Title page of the Amer 
1871 Standard, known as the Lock 
Standard of Perfection; n 

Something of the i 
account, the nomenclature 
the 1888 and 1915 Standard of Perfect; 

gether though the latter has sometimes lagged a little. It should be 
lines of 1888. and the edition containing them was declared obsolete. 



reprint (1887) of the first English Standard; nomenclature as given in it; title pages of the 
™^^!T.h l r n ! ' Middle— Pages of text and illustration from the 1888 edition of the American 
■ u< latin e in that edition. Below— Nomenclature in 1915 Standard of Perfection; pages of text in that edition 
provement shown m this series of illustrations is plainly due to hetter book making. Leaving that out of 
>■" attention to details of finish steadily increased, and comparison of even these few pages of 
progress in breeding and progress in Standard making have gone forward to- 
ted that breeders were not willing to accept the profile out- 



CHAPTER I 
The Service of the Poultry Show 

Early Poultry Shows — Relation to Agricultural Fairs — Reasons for Separate Poultry Exhibitions — Beginnings of Per- 
manent Big Shows — Their Benefits to the Near-by Community — Character of Competition at Different Classes 
of Shows — The Novice's Chances As an Exhibitor — Conditions of Judging — Attitude of Judges 



The Earliest Exhibits of Poultry 

THE first recorded instance of a public exhibit of 
poultry in America that the writer has been able 
to find takes us back to the year 1826. In that year 
James Sisson, of Warren, R. I., exhibited at the Rhode 
Island State Fair at Pawtucket three Emden Geese which 
he had just imported from Bremen, Germany. If poultry 
of any kind were exhibited at fairs elsewhere at the time 
cr in the period following, no interest was taken in them 
by those reporting the shows. 

The next record comes twenty years or so later. The 
date is in doubt, but it may have been in 1845, and it was 
not later than 1846, that the first competitive exhibit of 
poultry of which agricultural reports contain mention was 



terest at agricultural fairs, local shows (principally of 
poultry but also with exhibits of pigeons and pet stock) 
were held wherever it was possible to bring together a 
few hundred specimens of improved breeds. 

For this early and widespread promotion of special 
poultry shows there were several reasons. Probably the 
most forceful was the fact that neither young nor old 
poultry are usually at their best when the fall fairs are 
held. In fact, unless the young birds are very early hatch- 
ed they are likely to be at a most unattractive stage of 
development in the early fall, and the greater number of 
the old birds are then in the midst of the annual molt. 
As two or three months later both old and young are in 
the prime of condition, it was quite a matter of course 




The first great poultry sho 



Engls 



THE CRYSTAL PALACE. LONDON, ENGLAND 
ad was held here about 1845. The "Palace Show" 



still England's leading poultry sho 



held at the New York State Fair at Utica. In the latter 
year also sixteen exhibitors at the Worcester, Mass., Fair 
showed "barnyard fowls" which would appear to have 
been common native stock. The next year at Worcester 
premiums were awarded on common fowls, ducks and 
turkeys, and on one exhibit of Chinese fowls. Two years 
later, in the early fall of 1849, there were large and varied 
exhibits of poultry at at least four of the important county 
fairs in Massachusetts. 

The interest created by the poultry displays at these 
fairs was obviously the direct cause of the first exclusive 
poultry show held in America, at the Public Garden, Bos- 
ton, November 15-16, 1849. This in turn greatly stimulat- 
ed further exhibits at fairs in New England, and the pub- 
licity given by the press of the country to so unusual an 
event as a large exhibit exclusively of domestic poultry 
and pigeons of more interest than the common native 
stocks awakened interest all over the country, and resulted 
in nearly every county fair soon having its exhibit of poul- 
try of improved breeds, while special poultry shows were 
held in many of the large cities. 

After the Civil War the interest in good poultry in- 
creased more rapidly. Without any diminution of the in- 



that those most interested in poultry and most keen for 
competition should undertake to promote poultry shows 
at the season when birds were most fit. 

Another almost equally cogent reason was that the in- 
terest in improved breeds of poultry early became much 
more intense among town poultry keepers than among 
farm poultry keepers. Even the breeders and exhibitors 
of improved stock who had farms were for the most part 
city men with whom farming was more or less a hobby. 
From the first, many of the real farmers took an interest 
in the improvement and exhibition of poultry, but the 
early-day fanciers came preponderantly from the ranks 
of the people to whom poultry keeping was as attractive 
for the pleasure to be derived from it as for the profit to 
be obtained. It drew the town people especially because 
it was the line of live stock breeding best suited to people 
on small plots of land. 

A third important factor in the establishment of small, 
special poultry shows was the attitude of the management 
of many fairs toward exhibits and exhibitors of poultry. 
In the early days of the poultry movement, and long af- 
ter, poultry was regarded by the great majority of farm- 
ers as the least important of farm interests, and among 



8 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



those in charge of agricultural shows there was generally 
more indifference toward the wishes of poultry exhibitors, 
and in regard to means of making a poultry exhibit at- 
tractive and really useful for the purpose for which fairs 
are held, than disposition to promote a poultry depart- 
ment. While suitable provision was made for housing ex- 




OLD HOESE CAR BARN WHERE EARLY NEW YORK SHOWS WERE HELD 
This building was on the site of the present Madison Square Garden. It is shown here as used for 
cars. For show purposes it was remodeled, providing a big amphitheatre in space between wings 

hibits of every other class and displaying them to the best 
advantage, the poultry usually got some makeshift shelter, 
that in case of a storm was inadequate. The methods of 
classification, cooping and judging 
long followed the crude ways of the 
first exhibitions, which were so unsat- 
isfactory to poultry keepers acquaint- 
ed with better methods and having 
good exhibition stock, that they were 
unwilling to show under the condi- 
tions of competition they usually 
found at a fair. Improvements in 
these conditions came very slowly, 
and usually as the result of the efforts 
of poultry men who persisted in their 
determination to get the same consid- 
eration for poultry as for other class- 
es of exhibits at fairs in their com- 
munity, in spite of the indifference of 
fair managers. In some cases such 
poultrymen have done gratuitously a 
large part of the work necessary to 
put the poultry department at their 
fair on a satisfactory footing. 

Notwithstanding the shortcom- 
ings in the management, poultry ex- 
hibits at agricultural fairs from the 
first were on the whole very effective 
in popularizing improved breeds. The 
fairs had a stability and regularity 
that — as we shall see — the special 
pouUry shows of the early days never 

had. Fair associations were incorporated, had their 
grounds and buildings, and in most cases received consid- 
erable sums from their states to be distributed as pre- 
miums or gratuities for the encouragement of all lines of 



agriculture and household arts. The managers of a fair 
interested in other classes of live stock or phases of farm- 
ing might be unwilling to do anything themselves in be- 
half of poultry interests; but they would not deny the op- 
portunity to exhibit to anyone who brought poultry to a 
fair. And though they might be negligent or indifferent 
in various details of some im- 
portance to exhibitors, they 
were ready enough to give the 
customary small premiums to 
exhibitors of poultry. In fact, 
one of the common causes of 
complaint was that they were 
much more willing to let pre- 
miums go to unworthy exhibits 
than to pay a small fee to a 
competent judge and make the 
award at the fair worth some- 
thing among those who had 
some appreciation of the qual- 
ities of improved breeds. Still, 
wherever there was an agricul- 
tural fair, a poultry breeder 
who wished to do so, could 
make an exhibit with no cost 
to himself except for transpor- 
tation and attendance, and 
with assurance that practically 
everyone who attended the fair 
would at least take a passing 
look at his birds, and that they 
would have the careful attention of any visitor who took 
special interest in poultry. Considerable publicity was thus 
secured usually at only moderate cost to the exhibitor. 




INTERIOR VIEW OP THE PORTLAND, ME., SHOW, 1878 
From an old engraving 



The Risks in Promoting Poultry Shows 
The promotion of interest in poultry through special 
poultry shows was a more serious matter for the poul- 
tryman. The expense for a hall, for judges, for premiums, 



THE SERVICE OF THE POULTRY SHOW 



advertising, etc., even for a very small show, would run 
from one hundred to two or three hundred dollars. The 
funds for this had to come from exhibitors and visitors, or 
from the pockets of the promoters, or from the generous 
business men of the place. The necessary cash outlay in- 
cludes nothing for the work of the promoters who, accord- 
ing to circumstances and the kind of show they undertake 
to produce, must give freely of their own services. So it 
happens that, as a rule, a special poultry show is not pro- 
jected in a community until a 
considerable number of persons 
there are interested enough to 
give it some support, and a few 
to give the time necessary to 
make it a success. 

On the face of a statement 
of the circumstances relating to 
the promotion of special poultry 
shows it is obvious that while 
the enthusiasm of their promo- 
ters was fresh and they were 
somewhat of a novelty in a com- 
munity, they would attract a 
good deal of attention and stim- 
ulate a great many people to 
improve their poultry or to en- 
gage in the breeding and exhi- 
biting of fine poultry. It is just 
as plain that in the ordinary 
course of events most men ac- 
tive in promoting special poul- 
try shows will tire of the work 
in a few years, or will be oblig- 
ed to drop it because it inter- 
feres with their business. Even 
where men are willing to con- 
tinue to carry the burden of a 
local show, it seldom lasts more 
than a few years in the average 
community because after the 
novelty wears off the general 
public does not attend. 

For some forty years after 
the first poultry show at Boston 
the history of all poultry shows, 
large and small, in great cities 
and in country villages, was 
much the same. No show any- 
where was held for more than a 
few consecutive years. But in 
nearly every community where 
there was much interest in poul- 
try short series of shows, each 
under the management of a 
different group of breeders, 
came quite regularly with in- 
tervals of a few showless 
years between. This is still the situation with respect 
to by far the greater number of the shows that are pro- 
jected, and in the nature of the case it can hardly be other- 
wise unless a system of management of poultry shows can 
be devised and put into effect that will give the minor 
shows greater stability. 

The Beginning of Permanent Big Shows 

The first show established on a permanent footing 
was that at Madison Square Garden, New York. The 
present organization was made in 1889 and the first of the 




MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 
■om a photograph by F. L. Sewell 



series of shows still held annually at "The Garden" was 
held in 1890. This show was not a success financially, but 
its promoters included a number of men of large means 
who were determined to keep it going until it was estab- 
lished on a sound basis. Mr. Robert Colgate, of New 
York City, was the first president of the association and 
Mr. T. Farrer Rackham, of East Orange, N. J., was the 
secretary and show superintendent. In 1893 Mr. H. V. 
Crawford, of Montclair, N. J., became secretary and sup- 
^ erintendent, and Capt. Chas. M. 

Griffing, of Shelter Island, N. 
Y., became treasurer. Both of 
these men had been directors 
from the organiation of the as- 
sociation. Mr. Colgate's name 
appeared in the catalogues of 
the association for only a few 
years. His successor in the of- 
fice was Mr. Thomas H. Terry, 
of New York. In 1896, Mr. 
Theodore A. Havemeyer, of 
Mahwah, N. J., became presi- 
dent, and from that time until 
Mr. Crawford resigned the sec- 
retaryship in 1913 the manage- 
ment of the Garden Shows was 
in the hands of Messrs. Have- 
meyer, Crawford and Griffing 
with Mr. Crawford in actual 
charge of the shows. 

Without disparaging in any 
way the abilities and service of 
others it may be said that it was 
Mr. Crawford more thany any 
other who, by his own energy, 
ability and single-minded devo- 
tion to the interests of the show, 
and by the spirit with which he 
cooperated with his associates 
in the promotion of its interests, 
made this show a permanent 
success and set the standard for 
great poultry shows in America. 
He furnished the first example 
of a successful business man de- 
voting a large part of his time 
each year, not merely for two 
or three years but indefinitely, 
to make a show in the metrop- 
olis of America a success in ev- 
ery respect, and a permanent in- 
stitution. He was a man in the 
prime of middle life when he 
took up this work, and he did 
not lay it down until advancing 
years obliged him to do so. It 
is a pleasure to record here that 
though no more a familiar figure at the Garden, because 
his winters are passed in milder climates, he retains a keen 
interest in its welfare and derives much satisfaction from 
the knowledge of its continuing success. 

In point of time the service of Capt. Griffing as treas- 
urer exceeded that of Mr. Crawford, continuing to his 
death in 1917, at an advanced age. Mr. Havemeyer has held 
the office of president continuously from his first election. 
So in the management of this show there has been a per- 
manence and stability in the organization not equaled in 



10 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




Griffing 



the history of any other poultry show to the present time, 
and it is to this as much as to anything else that the poul- 
try interests of America owe what the New York Show 
has done for them. In this connection too, it is appropri- 
ate to refer further to Mr. Rackham, whom Mr. Crawford 
succeeded as secretary. His retirement from the office 
was not due to any failure in it, but to the fact that as 



superintendent for Spratt's Patent his relations to all 
shows cooped by that company were such that he was not 
in a position to do the work of the secretary of a show 
association, nor was it in the interest of the company for 
him to do so. But he had actual charge of the cooping 
and other details of management of this and of nearly all 
the great shows in America to the time when confirmed 




THE SERVICE OF THE POULTRY SHOW 



11 



invalidism made him the unwilling but cheerful tenant of 
a wheel chair. In his active days Mr. Rackham was con- 
sidered remarkably efficient in arranging shows to best 
advantage, and a past master in the art of smoothing the 
difficulties that beset show managers. To him more than 



ably some reaction, and many people who wutch its 
course get the impression that the instability of the show 
reflects instability of the interests it represents. Though 
the first show of this New York Association had been re- 
ported a financial disappointment, the association went on 
year after year, with each year creating more confidence 
both in its own permanence and in the standing of those 
who exhibited at New York year after year. With each 
year the value of winnings at the Garden increased. The 
successful exhibitor here could make good sales at the 




to anyone else was due the excellence of arrangement, and 
the general neatness and attractiveness now general, but 
until very recently characteristic only of important east- 
ern shows, and too often absent in shows of the same class 
elsewhere. 

Following Mr. Crawford, Mr. Charles D. Cleveland, 
of Eatontown, N. J., became secretary of the association, 
holding the position until 1919, when the demands of his 
own business led him to resign and he was succeeded by 
Mr. D. Lincoln Orr, of Orrs Mills, N. Y. In the active 
and responsible management of this show, in the three 
working offices, there were in a period of thirty years 
but eight men all told. It was this and the harmony that 
prevailed in the organization that gave the show its stand- 
ing and prestige. 

Every good poultry show has a stimulating effect on 
poultry interests, and the larger the show and the greater 
the importance of the city where, or the fair at which it 
is held, the greater — for the time being — the influence of 
the show. But when a show intended to be an annual 
event is discontinued within a few years there is inevit- 




show, and by effec- 
tive advertising of 
his winnings in the 
poultry press could 
find a good outlet 
for everything he 
had to sell at prof- 
itable figures. The 
best possible evi- 
dence of the benefi- 
cial influence of the 
standing this show 
had acquired with- 
in five years is 
found in the an- 
nouncement made 
by the present Bos- 
ton Poultry Asso- 

ciaton, the next to establish a permanent show, upon its 
organization in 1895. That announcement read in part: 
"In order to secure the permanency of an annual ex- 



12 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



hibition in Boston, it is absolutely necessary that the first 
show be a financial success, and that the subscribed guar- 
antee fund be returned in full to subscribers; for by a 
successful annual show alone can we hope to give the 
prizes won at our exhibition the same importance and 
value for advertising purposes as those won at New York 
and other large shows. This is our aim, and we hope to 
giv£ our home breeders, who cannot afford the expense of 
sending their birds to Madison Square Garden, the same 
advantages for disposing of stock enjoyed by those living 
near New York. 

"It is not in 
any way our pur- 
pose to have the 
Boston Show take 
the place of any of 
our local shows. 
Should the annual 
show in Boston 
prove a financial 
success, it is our 
intention to en- 
courage our local 
shows by the offer 
of special prizes, 
and by every other 
means in our pow- 
er. The local 
shows can always 
be run under the 
score-card meth- 
od, and will afford 

ample opportunity for all breeders desiring score cards to 
secure them. While we appreciate Ihe value of a score 
card, we realize that in a show of this magnitude the pub- 
lic demands that the prizes be designated as early as prac- 




'TATTEKSALLS" — WHKKK THE EARLY 
CHICAGO SHOWS WERE HELD 




SUM" — CHICAGO 



ticable. The expenses of running a large show in Boston 
are so great it is necessary to rely to a great extent on the 
public to pay a large part of the expenses, and the pub- 
lic will only be satisfied by having the prize ribbons 
awarded at an early hour, thus very much enhancing the 
beauty and interest of the show. It must be borne in mind 
that no show in Boston has ever paid expenses, and we 
consider that this justifies us in making this departure." 
The moving spirits in the Boston Association were 
Messrs. A. R. Sharp and W. C. Baylies, both residents of 
Taunton, Mbss., but with 'business offices in Boston. 
The first president of the association was Mr. Francis H. 
Appleton, of Lynnfield, Mass., who continued in the office 
until 1908, when he was succeeded by the late Mr. George 
B. Inches, of Grafton, Mass., who held the office for five 
years, being succeeded in 1913 by the present incumbent, 
Mr. John Lowell, of Boston. From the organization until 
1905 the late Mr. C. Minot Weld, of Readville, Mass., 
was secretary, but the details of the work were 
handled by Mr. A. R. Sharp as assistant secretary and 
superintendent, and throughout this period Mr. W. C. 
Baylies was treasurer, cooperating closely with Mr. Sharp 
in the management of 
the show. Messrs. 
Sharp and . Baylies 
were comparatively 
young men when the 
association was or- 
ganized, and for eight 
years Mr. Sharp gave 
almost his entire time 
for four or five 
months in each year 
to promoting the in- 
terests of the Boston 
Show. 

While all the 
shows of this associ- 
ation have been held 
in the Mechanics 
Building, the early 
shows used only one 
of the two large halls 
on the main floor, 
keeping the expense 

as low as possible. Most of the shows using only 
part of the building and keeping the rent and other ex- 
penses at a minimum were successful financially, and by 
judicious investment of the surpluses a fund was created 
which assured the association's ability both to finance 
larger shows and to weather whatever the future was 
likely to have in store in the way of adverse conditions for 
a show. It was then that the association began to rent 
and use the whole main floor of this big building, with the 
gallery over one hall and a large exhibition and lecture 
room under the stage of the other, giving it ample room 
for the display of a very large show without double tiering 
the coops as so many large shows are, for lack of space, 
obliged to do. 

In 1904 the association held no show, Messrs. Sharp 
and Baylies finding it impossible themselves to give it the 
time necessary, and not being able to find others willing 
to take over their work. The next year Mr. S. H. Roberts, 
of Pawtucket, R. I., was elected secretary-treasurer and 
superintendent of the show. He held the office until 1908, 
when Mr. W. B. Atherton, of Randolph, Mass., the present 
incumbent, succeeded him. So we find here again, in a 
period of twenty-five years, only eight different men in 




F. L. KIMMEY 
Who put Chicago Coliseum shows 



THE SERVICE OF THE POULTRY SHOW 



13 



the three or four principal positions affecting the interests 
of this show. It should be said further that in retiring 
from active management of the show Messrs. Sharp and 
Baylies continued to be closely associated with its inter- 
ests, as also did Mr. Weld. 




One 



"TOMLINSON HALL" — INDIANAPOLIS 
of the oldest buildings in the country used for poultry show purpos 



held here earlier than in the "Garden" 

How Permanent Large Shows Benefit Near-by Exhibitors 

I have outlined the history of the two oldest perma- 
nent shows in the country because it brings out clearly 
the essential thing in making poultry shows permanent — 
harmony in the management and the continuous, united ef- 
fort of a relatively small group of fanciers more interested 
in promoting poultry interests than in winning prizes and 
developing business for themselves. In the evolution of 
shows it has come about that the 
large shows pay an appropriate salary 
to the officers who devote much time 
to them, but in the early days service 
was entirely gratuitous, and that is 
still the case in most of the minor 
shows. Because that is the case, there 
is often a feeling that the best way to 
run a show is to divide the work 
among as many persons as can be in- 
duced to share it. That method has 
never worked well for a long period. 
The common result of it is spasmodic 
interest in the breeding of standard 
poultry in a community. 

A point of the highest importance 
in regard to poultry shows is brought 
out in the foregoing quotation from the 
announcement of the first show of the 
Boston Poultry Association. The pres- 
tige which the New York Show was 
gaining as a result of its establishment as a permanent an- 
nual event gave a great advantage to the breeders in the 
vicinity of New York. It gave some advantage to all 
breeders living near enough to that city to be able to 
move the birds they exhibited from their homes to the 



Me-'hanies Hull 



show in practically as good condition as they were when 
they left home; but it gave the greatest benefit to the 
small breeders of birds of first-class quality, who had not 
enough birds of this quality to justify the expense of show- 
ing at a distance from home. A large show will always 
get some exhibits from a distance, and 
the managers of a show are entitled 
to point to the numbers of such ex- 
hibits as indicating the prestige of the 
show and the character of competi- 
tion in it. But from the breeder's 
standpoint it is most important that 
there should be within quick and 
convenient shipping distance a per- 
manent first-class show where he 
can compete on an equal footing with 
breeders in his own class as produc- 
ers of standard poultry. And without 
disparagement to the value of win- 
nings at any large show, it should be 
said in the interests of the establish- 
ment permanently of many more large 
shows than we now have, that the 
bulk of the entries at a poultry show 
always have come, and always will 
come from breeders in its vicinity, 
and that — other things being equal — 
the nearer a breeder is to the show at 
which he exhibits, the better his 
chances of winning. In the nature of 
the case the distribution of prizes at 
any show is largely among the same 
group of breeders year after year. The group in any var- 
iety changes, but changes slowly as old exhibitors, for one 
cause or another, drop out and new ones come in. And 
while a show in a big city has a certain kind of prestige to 
start with, that the show in a smaller place has not, eventual- 
ly the prestige of a show is made by the character of the 
competition and the quality of the exhibits. 

Did space permit it would be both interesting and 
instructive to refer to the history of some of the large 




POULTRY BUILDING ILLINOIS STATE FAIR 

shows that promised well for a few years but were soon 
discontinued, and to some of the small shows that were 
held regularly for quite long terms of years. In their gen- 
eral features, however, these stories would be much the 
same. It is in nearly every case a question of gratuitous 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




POULTRY BUILDING AT 
The first big building erected on i 

service from some one until a show has passed through 
the vicissitudes common to new undertakings of all kinds, 
and of loyal support by the breeders who benefit by the 
show. Many instances could be cited of promising shows 
killed in their infancy by one or more disturbers of the 
general harmony; of show secretaries who had nothing 
whatever to gain from the success of a show Cut such 
credit as could come to them from having made it a suc- 
cess, and the satis- 
faction of helping 
poultry interests, 
working year after 
year against the 
obstacles put in 
their way by per- 
sistent trouble 
makers, and finally 
giving up in dis- 
gust; of small 
breeders in moder- 
ate circumstances 
giving freely of 
their time for 
many years, and 
often going into 
their pockets to 
pay deficits to keep 
their local shows 
going and to main- 
tain interest in their JOHN L. COST 

communities. It is The man who made a big success of the 
. A poultry department at Hagerstown and se- 

not practical to go cured the big building for it 




HAGERSTOWN. MD.. FAIR 

. fair ground exclusively for poultry 

into such details, but it is pertinent to call the attention of 
readers to them in a general way, because poultry shows 
are of fundamental importance in the promotion of poul- 
try interests, and it is equally to the advantage of the 
breeder of standard poultry to take what they can give and 
to give as the occasion may require of his service or 
money to insure the permanent establishment of a show 
at the most suitable place in his locality. 

Great Exposition Poultry Shows 

The poultry shows held in connection with the 
World's Fair at Chicago, 1893, The Pan-American Exposi- 
tion at Buffalo in 1902, the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, 
Jamestown Exposition in 1907, and the Panama-Pacific 
Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, were held under dif- 
ferent conditions and had a somewhat different influence 
from other large shows. Such shows are financed from 
the general funds of the exposition, winnings at them have 
for the time being extraordinary commercial value, the 
judges are selected with regard to qualifications, yet at the 
same time with a view to having every part of the Unit- 
ed States and Canada represented in the list. The exhibits, 
as a rule, come most numerously from comparatively 
near areas, but there is not the same preponderance of lo- 
cal exhibits as at the great annual shows. Hence, to a 
much greater extent than any annual show with a fixed 
habitation, the great exposition brings exhibits and breed- 
ers from different parts of the continent together to com- 
pare stock and ideas, and helps to harmonize the ideas of 
different persons and sections. 

Great Poultry Shows at Agricultural Fairs 

While the agricultural fairs were slow to adjust the 
management of their poultry departments, to meet the 




POULTRY BUILDING ON THI 



'ATE PAIR GROUNDS 



THE SERVICE OF THE POULTRY SHOW 



15 



wishes of exhibi- 
tors of standard 
poultry, most fairs, 
large and small, 
did eventually pro- 
vide classification 
as desired, make 
some effort to se- 
cure the services 
of competent judg- 
es and improve 
housing conditions 
Some of the large 
fairs have gone 
much farther and 
made their poultry 
department as 
good as their oth- 
er live-stock de- 
partments (and in 
a few cases better), 
and strong rivals 
of the leading win- 
ter shows. The 
poultry buildings 
on some fair grounds, notably at Hagerstown, Md., and at 
the New York State Fair Grounds at Syracuse, are better 
adapted to their purpose than any of the buildings in 
which the large winter shows are held. In number and 




Superintend 



York 



for it as for a winter show. Failing to do this he always 
incurs the risk of being easily beaten by a competitor with 
more mature birds. 

Character of Competition at Different Classes of Shows 
As a rule, a novice in showing poultry stands very 
little chance of winning at a first-class show with birds 
selected, conditioned, fitted and shown by himself. One 
who is personally inexperienced in these matters, yet has 
stock of the breeding and presumably of the quality that 
is winning at first-class shows, and wishes to exhibit at 
such, should engage an expert to select and handle his 
birds until by observation and practice he has learned to 
do so for himself. But for exhibition at the minor shows 
a- novice, who makes a careful study of what is required, 
may make his own selection of birds and fit them himself 
with reasonable assurance that if he is thorough and duly 
careful in his work he will stand a fair chance in such 
competition as he is likely to meet, and may possibly win 
over more experienced breeders and exhibitors who, pre- 
suming on the fact that exhibitors generally are likely to 
be a little careless about putting birds sent to small shows 
in their best condition, do not give their exhibits the at- 
tention they should. 

In general, the exhibits in the popular classes at the 
leading shows are selected with rare skill and judgment 
and conditioned and fitted very nearly to perfection. But 
in the classes where competition is not strong, even at 
the best shows, it will frequently happen that a novice 




$] 00.000 POULTRY BUILDING ON THE NEW YORK STATE PAIR GROUNDS AT SYRACUSE 



variety of exhibits few of the great winter shows now 
surpass the leading poultry shows at fall fairs and, al- 
lowing for the fact that they are held at a time when very 
little stock is in prime condition to show, the quality is as 
good and the value o c winings nearly if not quite as great. 
In fact, the value of winning at the leading fall fairs is 
such that the breeders who cultivate all good opportunities 
are giving more and more attention to hatching early 
enough to have a good string of young birds at the 
right stage for showing at one or more of the most im- 
portant fall fairs. These early-hatched birds seldom have 
the finish of those hatched at the natural season and grow- 
ing their adult plumage in cool weather, but they are in 
the best condition that can be given young birds early 
in the fall. To the present time only a small proportion 
of exhibits at fairs are of this class, but there is every 
reason to anticipate that the practice of hatching early for 
these shows will steadily increase and the exhibitor who 
covets winnings at any important fair will find it to his 
advantage to hatch early enough to have birds as mature 



with just ordinary good birds in good condition could 
come in and make a good winning. This is not said to 
encourage the novice to break recklessly into competition 



rP* 








^-C^TJ" AA 


m 



OLD POULTRY BUILDING AT SYRACUSE, N. Y. 



16 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



at a big show at the start, but to show the situation. Con- 
ditions in some classes are quite variable from year to 
year and, as a rule, an exhibitor has no means of knowing 
what competition he will meet until the birds are cooped. 

Considering the question from the point of view of the 
novice with no experience in showing, who selects and fits 
his own birds, his best policy is to make his first showing 
at a small show, and if he gets a fair share of the awards 
go to a little stronger competition, and pursue this line 
as far as he finds himself able to meet his competitors on 
fairly even terms. It is from every consideration much 
better for a beginner to stay with the smaller shows, pro- 
vided he has any competition at them, until it is apparent 
that he has qualified for the stronger competition of larg- 
er shows. There are many local shows, in places where 
breeders of standard poultry are numerous, that can give 
the majority of exhibitors as strong competition as they 
are ever able to meet. In general, the small exhibitor, es- 
pecially in the popular breeds and varieties, is wise to 
make his exhibits at such shows and to do all that he can 
to make the minor shows accessible to him prosperous 
and permanent, for at such shows he is competing on 
equal terms with others, while at the large show he is 
usually at a disadvantage in comparison with the veteran 
exhibitors and the commercial breeders — that is, the breed- 
ers who make their living from poultry, whose full strings 
of first-class birds are put into the show in the best possi- 
ble condition, and have the care of an expert attendant 
right up to the hour, and sometimes to the moment, of 
judging them. 

When a breeder has a bird of extraordinary quality, 
really good enough to win anywhere, but only one — or a 
very few — such, he may gain a passing satisfaction by 
winning a high prize at a first-class show, but there is no 
substantial advantage in it unless he is able to follow it 
up in succeeding years. Nor, if a breeder is ambitious 
to attain a standing among the regular exhibitors in the 
popular classes at leading shows, is there any advantage 
in selling a single specimen he may possess capable of 
winning at such a show. A breeder who has such a bird, 
but no reputation as an exhibitor, is often tempted by the 
offer of a good price to part with the bird. The man who 
yields to such a temptation will never get into the front 
rank of breeders and exhibitors. The wise policy for the 
breeder who knows he has a superior bird or small line, 
and is ambitious to get to the front in his variety, is not 
to show his best birds anywhere, and not to sell them un- 
der any circumstances, but to keep them at home and 
make the most of them as breeders until he can go into 
a show with at least one or two superior birds in each of 
the single-bird classes, and still have enough birds close 
up to these in quality at home to use as breeders in case 
anything happens to a bird exhibited. 

The Novice's Chances As an Exhibitor 
The impression prevails very widely among novices 
that poultry shows are controlled and more or less manip- 
ulated by "rings" of old exhibitors, who have some con- 
nection with the management, or some sort of pull or in- 
fluence with the judges. As to the conditions in general, 
nothing could be farther from the truth. As a rule, judges 
are both honest and careful to preserve their reputation 
for integrity as well as for ability. At the same time it 
must be recognized that various circumstances which are 
bound to arise in connection with the making of awards at 
shows often lend some color to suspicions of collusion. 
There is naturally a good deal of intimacy between the 



managers of a show, the judges and the regular exhibitors 
— especially those who come with their birds and remain 
through the show. In fact, it is this cordiality in the rela- 
tions of poultrymen that constitutes a large part of the 
attraction of a poultry show to what might be called the 
professional elements attending it. 

The new or occasional exhibitor who has not made 
his way into this circle (not at all a hard matter unless he 
deliberately goes in wrong) is rather prone to take the 
most unfavorable view of the apparent friendship between 
a judge in the class in which he exhibits and an exhibitor 
who wins over him. And the judge who is particularly 
intimate with an exhibitor is always open to suspicion of 
having been somewhat biased by his personal feeling when 
he favors his friend in a close decision. But the regular 
exhibitors, reporters and show managers, whose estimates 
of all such matters are based upon all they know of the 
men involved, rarely misjudge anyone on a single case of 
what looks like collusion or favoritism, for they know 
that even though he might be disposed to do so, no judge 
could follow his profession very long after making a 
few decisions which competent disinterested persons, or 
interested exhibitors generally, regarded as plainly biased; 
nor could the management of any show afford to tolerate 
— much less connive at — that kind of judging. 

Managers do sometimes make poor selections of judg- 
es. In that case the sufferer is the exhibitor who does 
not get what a competent judge would give him, and he 
is apt to be one of the leading exhibitors. Judges do 
sometimes show rank favoritism, but such instances are 
rare, and in the writer's knowledge of shows they have 
generally reacted promptly upon the judge. A notable 
case in point is one that happened years ago at an im- 
portant show. One of the officials of the show was a 
leading exhibitor in a certain class for years. At a certain 
show the class was judged by a judge who had officiated 
at the show, sometimes judging one class, sometimes an- 
other, for many years, and who was generally rated com- 
petent and fair. In this case he gave the official's birds 
places which the latter thought should have gone to a 
competitor. The official, after the awards were made, 
asked the judge to look over the class with him and, 
pointing out certain of his competitors' birds as plainly 
superior to some of his own that were placed above them, 
asked the judge why he had made the decision as he did. 
After a little beating around the bush the judge admitted 
that he had made the awards as he did to favor the of- 
ficial to the extent of giving him a good share of winnings 
in a class where on merits his exhibit would have stood 
second all the way through. Having secured this explana- 
tion the official addressed him substantially as follows: 
"Mr. Blank, I personally don't want any award that I am 
not honestly entitled to, and as an officer of this show 
I have no use for a judge who will consider anything but 
the merits of the birds when he makes his awards. You 
have not done me a favor. You have done me and the 
show an injury. In the eyes of everyone who sees this 
class, and who is competent to form an opinion, 
you have made me appear as in some way influencing 
you to favor my birds. Both as an exhibitor 
and as an officer of this association I resent 
that." The judge never judged at that show again, though 
the incident was not known outside of the show manage- 
ment until years after, when certain persons who had sug- 
gested this judge for a class at the show were told the 
reason their suggestion could not be accepted. 



CHAPTER II 



Fundamental Things About Judging and Judges 

Standard Descriptions the Basis of Judging — Methods of Judging by the Standard — Merits and Faults of Score-Card 
Judging — Status of Comparison Judging — Why Different Methods Give Unlike Scores — How the Per- 
sonality and Ideals of the Judge Influence His Application of the Standards 



AN exhibitor of Standard poultry has to consider the 
subject of judging it at every stage of the produc- 
tion and preparation of his stock. His matings 
must be made with a view to securing the largest possible 
percentage of specimens of good standard quality. His 
chickens must be grown with due consideration of the ef- 
fects of different environments upon the development of 
quality in characters which are modified by conditions af- 
fecting growth. That he may use his time and equipment 
to best advantage, it is usually desirable to cull out every 
chicken that evidently is not of fair standard quality as 
soon as a fault which eliminates a specimen from further 
consideration for exhibition or for breeding to standard is 
noted. To succeed as an exhibitor one must himself be a 



regularly fixed or graded factors. The whole subject is 
fully explained in the last three chapters of this book for 
those who wish a thorough knowledge of the evolution of 
methods of judging. For our present purpose, and for 
ordinary use in selecting and preparing birds for exhibi- 
tion, it is sufficient to describe the common methods of 
judging without going into detailed explanations of theo- 
ries of judging Standard poultry. 

Standard Descriptions As the Basis of Judging 

The description of a breed and its varieties, in the 
"Standard of Perfection," is designed for use in actual in- 
spection and judging of specimens of the breed and varie- 
ty which fairly approximate the approved type. The 




I. K. Pelch and G. O. Bruv 



FOUR VETERAN JUDGES AT 

fair judge of standard quality in his variety of poultry, and 
must be able to grade his birds with reasonable accuracy 
according to their merit. 

To learn to judge poultry for the purposes specified 
is not at all difficult when instruction and practice are 
simplified by considering only the actual essentials in ap- 
plying the "Standard of Perfection." The confusion of 
mind into which most people who try to study out the 
principles of judging for themselves fall, is due to the fact 
that theoretically the American Poultry Association's sys- 
tem of score-card judging, as developed when the Associa- 
tion was organized, 1 is a complex system with many vari- 
able factors, while practically it is a simple system with 



H. B. May and Clerk 

WORK IN THE SHOWROOM 



Standard illustrations, and other illustrations of good mod- 
els, help to correct understanding and application of Stan- 
dard requirements, but even with these helps a practical 
understanding of the Standard specifications is not attain- 
ed until one compares birds section by section with the 
Standard descriptions, and with the aid of appropriate ex- 
planations and illustrations. The Standard description is 
not designed to give one who had never seen what is de- 
scribed a correct idea of it, but to enable any intelligent 
person with a specimen of any variety described in it to 
determine with reasonable accuracy how closely the spec- 
imen conforms to the ideal of perfect form and color up- 
on which the breeders have agreed as the desirable type. 



18 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



With this object, the "Standard of Perfection" is the 
guide for both novices and expert judges, but with the dif- 
ference that the novice uses it in learning to judge values, 
and every application that he makes of it is tentative and 
subject to revision as he makes progress in analyzing birds 
and estimating the proper cuts for the faults he finds; 
while the expert judge must be able to make a good esti- 
mate of the quality of a bird at a glance, and an approxi- 
mately accurate valuation of all its faults upon a very rap- 
id inspection. The expert is able to do this not by any 
peculiar faculty of intuition, but as the result of long and 
thorough training in observing birds and estimating their 
Standard valuations. Not that professional judges are in- 
fallible. All make errors at times and they differ in their 
ideas of the values of characters but, on the whole, the 
class of professional judges is made up of men and women 
whose judgments are considered by those familiar with 
their work as accurate as estimates of this character can 
be, and in accord with prevailing opinion as to the best 
interpretation of the Standard. 

If the decision of a judge is questioned he has to jus- 
tify it by the Standard description, or by an official rule 
for the interpretation of the Standard, if there are rules ap- 
plying to the point. Otherwise, it is his privilege to make 
his own interpretation of the Standard, and also in matters 
where the Standard recommends certain things but does 
not specifically require them the judge is at liberty to fol- 
low his own opinions — always subject to the consideration 
that if the application of his own peculiar ideas does not 
meet the approval of exhibitors collectively he will soon 
find no demand for his services as a judge. Exhibitors are 
tolerant of a judge's peculiarities if they are not too num- 
erous, and if they run generally in the line of demanding 
high standards — of applying the Standard with a view to 
maintaining the highest standards, rather than by laxity, 
allowing inferior birds to win. True, an exhibitor, who 
through the severity of a judge has come out badly in a 
competition, may in his disappointment exclaim against 
his severity upon faults, but it is generally recognized that 



exacting judges do far more for the improvement of Stand- 
ard poultry than others, and most seasoned exhibitors 
would much rather show under a judge who is known to 
be strict in every particular, than under one who has the 
reputation for leniency with certain faults. 

Methods of Judging by the Standard 

The first written standards for poultry were made in 
England, by a poultry club organized for the purpose 
about 1865-6. Reprints of these standards, modified to 
suit the ideas of their publishers, were shortly after made 
in America. The original plan of describing birds was 
less elaborate and careful in detail, but not materially dif- 
ferent from the present "Standard of Perfection." 

The practice of "scoring" in judging poultry as pre- 
sented in the first standards consisted in allotting small 
numerical credits for excellence in a few principal char- 
acters or sections, the sum total of such points being 15. 
This plan appears to start with the method of computing 
the score or sum of points representing achievement com- 
monly used in many games and sporting contests, but dif- 
fers in making a uniform, comparatively low limit. It is 
simply a crude method of checking up birds competing un- 
der comparison judging; but quite naturally, when a maxi- 
mum limit is placed on the number of points that could 
be given a specimen, the practice arose of judging by dis- 
counting from the maximum number of points allowed a 
character or section. When this method is used a total 
of 15 points is too small to make discounts for faults from 
unless the cuts are all in small fractions. So, when the 
breeders and judges in America organized the American 
Poultry Association and revised and amended the stan- 
dards received from England to suit their ideas, they in- 
creased the total number of points to 100, and made defi- 
nite allotments of points to every section described in the 
written description of a breed. They considered 100 points 
the score of a perfect, ideal specimen, and arrived at the 
value of a specimen compared with this ideal by deducting 
in each section for the faults found in that section. 




FUNDAMENTAL THINGS ABOUT JUDGING AND JUDGES 



Hi 




S. B. Johnston 
JUDGES HANDLING BIG BIRDS AT ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION 



ce F. Delano 



The original theory of cutting for defects was that 
the number of points assigned a section represented per- 
fection in that section, and that the amount of cut was to 
be found by computing it as a percentage of the number of 
points in the section in which it appeared. This process was 
entirely too intricate for ordinary use. So it came about 
that in practice the method was to make specific cuts for 
faults as found — usually y 2 for a slight fault, 1 for more 
pronounced but still not very bad faults, and \y 2 , 2 or 
more, for very bad faults. In scoring a specimen then the 
judge, using the American Association Official Score Card, 
as reproduced on page 20, marked the cuts he considered 
appropriate in the proper spaces, added up the totals of 
cuts in the two columns for shape and color, and deducted 
the total from 100, the result being the score. 

While the unit cut was commonly y 2 , with heavier 
cuts in multiples of that fraction, some judges used small- 
er fractions, and some cut all faults much more severely 
than others. This and the unavoidable errors in judging 
gave wide variations in scoring. In an effort to make 
practice more uniform, the American Poultry Association 
first inserted in the Standard a list of faults that could be 
accurately described, as absence of certain feathers, eyes of 
different colors, etc., and provided definite specific cuts 
for these. In after revisions of the Standard this list has 
been increased and made to include faults of varying de- 
grees — the maximum and minimum cuts for such faults as 
commonly found being indicated. The list of cuts thus 
mentioned in the 1915 Standard is about fifty. The low- 
est cut recommended in this list is y 2 \ but it is provided in 
the general instructions to judges that no cut of less than 
li shall be made in any section. 

The instruction to base cuts on percentages of the val- 
ue given a section has disappeared from the Standard, 
though those who use it are still emphatically advised that 
in cutting for defects careful consideration must be given 
the scale of points. It is this insistence on the considera- 
tion of the scale of points that confuses the novice trying 
to score fowls by the Standard. If he will simply pay no 
attention to it, and apply the system of specific cuts which 
the Standard recommends in the list of special faults in it 
to all faults, the novice can with a little practice, and test- 
ing his results by comparison with scores of professional 
judges which come under his observation, learn to make 
very good estimates of the Standard values of his birds. 



Practice in scoring is the best training in the syste- 
matic observation of the qualities of Standard poultry that 
an exhibitor can have, whether he is to exhibit at a score- 
card or at a comparison show. No other way has been de- 
vised that so effectively leads to careful consideration of 
all sections and of every character. It is a great advan- 
tage to a beginner to have instruction in scoring from some 
one more proficient than himself, but he can learn much 
without such instruction. Many beginners are led to un- 
derrate the importance of thorough inspection of speci- 
mens they intend to exhibit, by giving ear to advisers 
who decry the method of searching for defects in judging, 
and declare that the "true fancier" looks for beauty and 
merit and is rather above spending time searching for hid- 
den and trivial faults. 

Thoroughness of the Poultry Judge 

The merits of that view need not be discussed here. 
The novice in exhibiting may be sure that a competent 
judge is going to find all the faults in the specimens he 
exhibits. That is a part of the judge's work. But the 
novice need not fear that the judge will overlook quality 
or merit anywhere. A good judge's first glance at a speci- 
men tells him very accurately what its quality is, "if it 
handles well"; that is, if when he takes it in hand and goes 
over it, and literally through its plumage, section by sec- 
tion, looking for the faults that are not visible from the 
aisle, he finds no bad faults. 

Practically the only cases where a judge overlooks a 
really good bird are where the bird is both cooped in a 
bad light and stands badly as the judge looks at it from 
the aisle. Such cases are comparatively rare because 
judges generally realize the possibility of errors due to 
bad light and carriage, and take precautions accordingly. 
Many birds naturally take good positions — seem to delight 
in showing themselves off — whenever anyone stops to 
look at them. Most birds that come from long-established 
lines of exhibition stock are either natural posers or can 
easily be taught to pose when being inspected, and such 
training is an essential part of the work of fitting birds for 
exhibition. When a bird under observation by a judge 
does not take a position that shows good type, the judge, 
by motions or touches of the hand or a judging stick, 
tries to make it do so, and makes his decision as to type 
and carriage according to the best form he can induce it 



20 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



to take. When the light conditions where a bird is coop- 
ed are bad, the judge will usually take it from the coop to 
a good light to examine its color. 

An exhibitor watching a judge at a comparison show 
at work on a class in which he is interested sometimes 
notes that the judge does not take all specimens from the 
coops. If some of the birds thus passed happen to be 
his, he is apt to conclude that the judge has not given them 
attention enough to know how good they are, and to com- 
plain that the judge hardly looked at them. No judge ev- 
er passes birds in this way unless as seen from the aisle 
they plainly show some fault that puts them out of con- 
sideration as possible prize winners. Many judges at com- 
parison shows, however, to forestall any criticism of this 
kind, make it a rule to take every bird in the class in 
hand and at least "give it the once over." 

'In score-card shows the judge, even though he may 
see at a glance that the bird must be disqualified, may han- 
dle it and score regularly until the section containing the 
disqualification is reached, then write disqualified on the 
card and stop. The attitude of a judge in such cases is 
likely to be determined partly by the time at his com- 
mand, the grade of the competition, and the advantage to 
an exhibitor of having the score of the specimen — even 
though it is disqualified. Judges sometimes complete the 
scoring of disqualified birds to the extent of marking all 
the cuts. This is done mostly at small and new shows 
where exhibitors are mostly novices and whatever helps 
them to a better appreciation of standard qualities in birds 
is worth doing. 

Merits and Faults of Score-Card Judging 

In score-card judging each specimen is mentally com- 
pared with the ideally perfect type of its kind as it stands 
in the mind of the judge, and the placing of numerical 
valuations upon its faults fixes a numerical valuation of ex- 
cellence. Theoretically, and also in a rigid application of 
the method, each specimen judged is considered only in 
comparison with the ideal, and after the cuts are duly re- 
corded on a score card anyone who can do simple addi- 
tion and subtraction can find the scores of the birds judged 
and the order in which they stand. A great deal of judg- 
ing had been done in this way with fairly satisfactory re- 
sults in small classes of variable quality. But when ap- 
plied to large classes of better and more uniform quality 
such practice often gives results that, when the ribbons 
are put up, are plainly wrong in the opinion of compe- 
tent persons comparing the birds in the light of the judge's 
awards. The scores of all the specimens may be approxi- 
mately right, yet as nearly all cuts are based on estimates, 
not on accurate measurements of any kind, and the stand- 
ard used by the judge is a miental one, it will frequently 
happen that a nearly equal degree of fault is cut harder 
in one specimen than in another. The only way to avoid 
this is for the judge after scoring the birds to compare the 
birds that get places, and also any others that are close 
up to them, and by such comparison justify his work, re- 
vising it if necessary before finally making his awards. 

Exhibitors who did not understand the matter and 
appreciate the necessity for testing work done under the 
conditions have been known to imagine and complain that 
the j'idge after having made his scores (recorded his un- 
biased opinions), finding out — supposedly — that the awards 
were not going where he would like to see them, proceed- 
ed to juggle the scores to get the desired result. If a judge 
is disposed to juggle scores to favor certain birds, he can 
easily do it when making them in the first place without 
giving any opportunity for criticism reflecting upon his 



fairness. All that is necessary is to do systematically and 
with definite intent what he occasionally does inadvertent- 
ly — cut a little hard at two or three points on one bird and 
with leniency on a few points on the other. Even a dis- 
crimination of l /z point against one bird may give another 
the necessary advantage, and the judge can always ef- 
fectively plead that in his opinion the cut was merited. 
Judges who want to do unfair things do not do them in 
ways that are easily visible to novices in the showroom. 
Why Different Methods Give Slightly Different Scores 
The errors in hasty judging by the regulation score- 
card method, and the time consumed in careful application 
of that method in the days when the percentage method 
of valuing defects was in vogue, led to efforts to improve 
methods of judging. These took two directions. Some 
sought to improve the score-card method, others to do 
away with it entirely and judge birds in competition by 
comparing them together without making any numerical 
valuations of defects and excellences. Attempts to im- 
prove score-card judging brought out two kinds of cards — 
the decimal score card which was intended as a substitute 
for the original style, and a number of more or less elab- 
orate explanatory score cards which were designed to go 
farther than the old regulation and decimal score cards 
and show all faults found in each section, and the exact 
amount of cut for each. The decimal card was the only 
one that ever came into general use. It differs from tne 
American Poultry Association Official Card in making 



OFFICIAL SCORE CARD 





Condition 



Head and Beak 



Eyes 



Comb 



Wattles and Ear Lobes 



Neck 



Wings 



_Z 



7^ 



JL 




i-^-^e ^ 



2&2&*&£r*' 



7?E*- x^- 



^^L^l^z^L-^. 



A SAMPLE REGULATION' SCORE CARD 



FUNDAMENTAL THINGS ABOUT JUDGING AND JUDGES 



21 




SOME WELL KNOWN JUDGES AT WORK AT THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION, 1904 
Upper — Sharp Butterfield, W. S. Russell, P. H. Shellabarger 

Middle — Geo. H. Burgolt, F. J. Marshall, C. A. Emry 
Lower — D. T. Heimlich, Thomas P. Rigg, Chas. T. Cornman 



22 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



the whole number of sections 10 and allowing 10 points 
to each section, thus making possible greater facility in 
computing cuts on a percentage basis, and greater uni- 
formity in some estimates of value. But as it has only 10 
sections, where the other card has 13, the tendency is for 
a judge using the decimal card and making the customary 
cuts to get a little higher scores than with the other card, 
though judges who recognize how these higher scores oc- 
cur easily make their scores the same by either method, 
by the simple process of making sure that they do not ov- 
erlook any fault, but cut for each and every one and mark 
the result in its proper place on the card. 




JUDGES CONSULTING 
J. H. Drevenstedt and F. L. Piatt 

Another thing that operated to bring score-card judg- 
ing into disrepute was the prevalence of the practice of 
inflating scores by making lighter cuts for defects in poor 
classes at small shows and in "private scoring" than in or- 
dinary and strong competition. A few judges systematical- 
ly scored the birds high at small local shows where the ex- 
hibitors were mostly novices, because — they said — accur- 
ate scoring would discourage the exhibitors. With all 
the birds at shows scored the practice of selling birds at 
prices according to what they .had scored or would score 
came into vogue. As there is in principle no valid reason 
why a judge should not score a bird as accurately in a 
breeder's yard as in a showroom, it became common for 
breeders — especially those of little reputation and experi- 
ence — to engage judges to score all the birds they had to 
sell and to adjust prices to these scores. Such practice, 
uncontrolled in any way, led to abuses. 

It should be understood that it was the faults of the 
system in use and the abuses of the use of the score card, 
and the time required for its application at large shows 
where competition was close, that led to the adoption of 
comparison judging, first at New York and Boston, and 
then at other large shows and many small ones. The of- 
ten repeated assertion of persons who do not like some 
features of the score-card system, that the change was 
based on consideration of the actual merits of the two 
systems (score card and comparison), is not in accordance 
with the facts as stated by the management of the first 
show in this country to return to the comparison method. 
Status of Comparison Judging 

iWhile that method is either generally acceptable or 
not unacceptable to exhibitors who are themselves thor- 



oughly good judges of the classes in which they exhibit, 
and to visitors who know something of the Standard and 
of the ideas of different judges, it is generally very un- 
satisfactory to novices and amateurs, and especially so to 
those who may not be able to attend a show. 

The sole objective in comparison judging is to pick 
the winners of money and ribbon prizes, and the judge 
makes no record* of either these or the other birds in the 
class except as may be necessary for his own guidance. 
These are usually in some sort of symbolic system of his. 
own, and have no further value. They are not turned in 
to the managers, nor do they eventually go to the owners, 
of birds as the score cards do. While a thoroughly sys- 
tematic and careful judge will make his awards the same 
by either method, or with any score card, the comparison! 
method undoubtedly encourages slack judging by those 
at all inclined to slack and slovenly work, and it also. 
gives more latitude to judges disposed to favor particu- 
lar qualities, either merits or faults. 

Under the conditions which existed when the return 
to the comparison method began, and for some time af- 
ter, the results appeared to justify the change. There were 
usually in every large class a few outstanding individuals, 
and the judge could eliminate most of the others at sight 
and apply himself without delay to the task of placing 
these in the right order of merit. But as the number of 
good breeders increased and average quality in nearly all 
popular classes rose, comparison judging showed less and 
less speed. And when some of the large classes at the 
leading shows reached the stage where they contained 
many times more birds entitled to consideration than there 
were ribbons to be awarded, it often took the judge as 
long to award the prizes by comparison as it would have 
taken by the score-card method. In fact, it is impossible 
to judge such a class satisfactorily to the judge himself 
without some system of scoring preliminary to compari- 
son of the birds entitled to consideration for prizes. The 
compelling reason for abandoning the use of the score 
card in large shows was the occurrence of instances where 
two or three days were consumed in scoring a large class. 
Everyone familiar with the situation at large shows knows 
that such instances are becoming more and more frequent 
now in comparison shows. 

The exhibitor at a comparison show need not fear 
that the judge will overlook a bird that has any chance 
of winning. The chances of that are too remote to re- 
quire consideration. What he has to consider is that the 
personal ideas and preferences of the judge enter into 
comparison judging more easily than into score-card judg- 
ing, where he has either to record a cut in every section 
or by failure to do so record the opinion that the section 
is in every particular so good that no cut is called for. 
This may not always completely check a judge's tendency 
to favor certain things bu,t it is very effective in that di- 
rection. In the comparison show there is no direct check 
upon a judge who is partial to excellence in certain points, 
or inclined to be unduly severe upon certain faults. The 
only check on bias in his judging is his own appreciation 
of his tendency and of the possible criticism and dissatis- 
faction if it is allowed free play. It has already been ex- 
plained that the judge has some latitude in the interpreta- 
tion of the Standard. That being the case, a tendency to 
partiality has to be tolerated if it is not too pronounced, 
and the exhibitor's chances of succeeding under a judge 
are very much improved if he studies the judge's likes 
and dislikes and selects for exhibition accordingly. 



CHAPTER III 
Ethics ot Fitting and Fixing Birds for Exhibition 

Typical Cases of Unquestionably Legitimate, Doubtful and Illegitimate Practices — Analysis of Cases Showing How the 

Problem of Suppression of Unfair Methods Is Complicated by Peculiar Difficulties of Clearly Determining 

What Is Unfair — Review of the History of Regulatory Measures — Obstacles to Breeding and 

Selling Faked Specimens a Powerful Check on Wrongful Practices 



THE preceding chapter treats of the attitude of poul- 
try judges toward their work, and tells the novice 
in exhibiting what to expect for his birds and him- 
self at the hands of the judges. This chapter will tell what 
he has to meet in the way of competition with expert ex- 
hibitors, and will discuss the ethics of the practices which 
are more or less common among them. As the points and 
matters which have to be considered in selecting and fit- 
ting birds for exhibition are brought up in detail the 
reader will appreciate (if he has not already learned it by 
experience) that there are comparatively few birds which 
upon close expert inspection are found free from faults, 
and that many of the faults most often found in birds of 
general attractive quality are of such a nature that they 
may be easily removed or concealed by artificial means. 
The practical question in selecting and fitting exhibition 
birds is: How far is it fair and legitimate to go in the con- 
cealment or removal of such faults? 

To discuss the question intelligently we must first 
consider the nature of the faults which can be remedied 
by artificial means, and the nature of the remedies. It is 
not necessary at this stage to enumerate and consider all 
practices. Typical cases will serve the purpose. 
Regarding the Removal of Side Sprigs 
A small side sprig, that is a round point growing on 
the side of a single comb, is a disqualification. A side 
sprig is easily removed. If it is seen and removed at an 



early stage of the growth of the comb, the resulting scar 
may be so indistinct as to escape all but eyes of microscop- 
ic power. If the removal is made when the comb is full 
grown, or nearly so, a smooth scar is left, but in many 
cases the appearance of this is such that it is not possible 
to say whether the scar was caused by the removal of 
a side sprig or by an accidental injury to the comb. Ac- 
cording to rule, in that case the specimen and the exhibi- 
tor have the benefit of the doubt. Thus, in operation, the 
rule works generally to the advantage of the skilled and 
clever faker, and punishes the bungler. The exceptions 
are the cases where judges take the position that scars in 
the places where side sprigs mostly grow are indubitable 
evidence that a side sprig has been removed; for while it 
is not impossible for an injury to cause the scar, It is high- 
ly improbable that accidents making similar scars should 
occur so often. Comparatively few judges are as stiff in 
the matter as this, but it is noted that stiffness in disquali- 
fying for suspicion of the removal of side sprigs does not 
hurt the popularity of a judge, unless he is inconsistently 
lenient toward some other disqualification or fault. 
Relations of Washing and Bleaching 
In all White varieties the Standard requires that the 
color shall be a pure white. Pronoilnced brassiness is cut 
severely, and creaminess more lightly. Some birds are 
naturally very white, others slightly creamy, still others 
decidedly brassy. Practically all white birds need wash- 




Two photographs of the same bird, taken about an hour apart, show strikingly what an expert "fixer 



do to improve 



form. The work in this case could have been done in 15 to 20 minutes, but was done very slowly to admit of making photo-raDhs of 
the processes fully described and illustrated in Chapter IX. B pnoio„iapns ot 



24 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



ing liefore exhibiting. Those that are very white, and that 
have been kept where the plumage gets very little soiled, 
will look white by comparison with nnwashed birds. But 
a properly washed bird is always much cleaner and whiter 
looking than an unwashed one. Washing with water and 
as much soap as is necessary to remove the dirt will re- 
duce creaminess of creamy white plumage. Repeated 
washings with soap and water will make the creamiest 
plumage pure white. A less number of washings, or per- 
haps a single washing with a cleansing compound strong- 
er than soap, will make a creamy plumage pure white. 

It is universally conceded that washing with soap and 
water is legitimate, and that an exhibitor may wash that 
way as often as he sees fit. It is held by some that if the 
whitening of plumage, by repeated washings is legitimate, 
it. is absurd to take the position that the use of more pow- 
i iiul cleansers, producing the same result with less labor, 
is illegitimate. Others take the view that it is the nature 
of the chemicals which should be considered. The issue 
between them is immaterial: all have the same object and 
arrive at the same end — the whitening of creamy plumage. 
Hence the practice of washing white birds is general, ana 
incidentally the creamy birds are made as white as the na- 
turally white ones, and all white birds shown in good com- 
petition and in good show condition are practically equal 
in color, and awards turn upon other points. Washing, 
with incidental bleaching, is an essential part of the fitting 
of white birds for exhibition. One who does not do it 
cannot show with any hope of winning prizes. The re- 
moval of side sprigs would in any case apply to only a 
small proportion of a class. 
. Removal of "Foul" Feathers and Coloring Feathers 

In birds of all colors false-colored feathers — some- 
times called foreign colored, or simply foul feathers — ap- 
pear with more or less frequency, according to the com- 
position of the variety, the length of time it has been 
bred, and the character of the pattern. When these off- 
colored feathers are in the soft-feathered sections they 
may be plucked out, to the great improvement or the ap- 
pearance of the bird and without detection, unless there 
are many of them close together. When they are in the 
hard-feathered sections, as the wings and tail, they can- 
not be removed or even broken and the fact concealed. It 
is, however, sometimes possible to stain, dye or paint 
feathers defective in color so that only close expert in- 
spection will discover indications of the fraud, and a chem- 
ical test may be needed to show decisively that the feath- 
ers have been artificially colored. 

This last form of faking is generally regarded as il- 
legitimate. Its status differs from that of the removal of 
side sprigs in that the presence of artificial coloring mat- 
ter cannot possibly be attributed to accident; and it dif- 
fers from the bleaching of white birds in that the process 
is in no sense an application of method of treatment some- 
times admittedly legitimate. Hence, exhibitors who are 
careful of their reputations are inclined to let it severely 
alone, and because that is the general attitude toward it, 
there is little disposition to tolerate the practice, and there 
is a strong tendency to make an example of any offender 
whose guilt can be clearly established. 

Removal of Stubs and Down 

All the clean-legged breeds that come from crosses or 
mixtures with feather-legged breeds have a strong ten- 
dency to produce specimens with "stubs'' or down on the 
shanks and sometimes also on the outer toes, and with 
down between the toes, and occasionally on the shanks. 
The Standard makes the least particle of down on shanks 



or feet of a clean-legged breed a disqualification, and also 
makes evidence that stubs or down have been removed 
a disqualification. The occasion for this severity was the 
long-continued persistence of stubs as a common fault in 
all breeds and varieties of the popular American class. In 
these the fault tended, and still tends, to maintain itself 
if tolerated at all. But in the smaller clean-legged breeds 
it is not a serious fault. In all slight cases it is easily re- 
moved and the holes plugged so as to escape detection. 

Whether such is the real intent of the Standard or not. 
the provision in regard to the removal of stubs and down 
encourages their removal in all cases where the fact that 
they have been removed can be readily concealed, and it 
is the common practice to do so; while only a bungler, or 
one willing to take desperate chances on a judge overlook- 
ing something, tries to fix up for the show a bird having 
so many or such large stubs that the holes left by their 
removal cannot be fully concealed by plugging. 
Making Over Bad Combs 

The comb of a bird that is defective may be greatly 
changed in form by a surgical operation. Extra serrations 
in single combs may be removed, absent rear spikes on 
rose combs supplied, and even very large and badly form- 
ed combs carved to beautiful proportions — preparations 
being applied to cut surfaces to make them heal with a 
more natural appearance than they otherwise would. Ex- 
cept as occasionally an operation of little more importance 
than the cutting off of a side sprig is made to remedy a 
slight fault in an otherwise uncommonly good bird, exhi- 
bitors generally taboo these practices as brutal, and as 
quite outside the application of the principle which justi- 
fies the use of simple measures to remove superficial faults. 
An expert breeder or judge is rarely deceived by this 
Form of faking. 

Splicing Tail and Wing Feathers 
A broken or defective tail feather, oftenest a sickle 
feather, or pair of sickles in cocks of breeds having long 
sickle feathers, is sometimes cut off, leaving a stub to 
which a perfect feather can be spliced. The success of 
this form of faking depends upon the absence of careful 
examination section by section. It is hardly possible for 
it to escape the notice of a judge who is looking sharply 
for the common defects in stiff feathers. Even if the 
dead spliced feathers are not enough different from the 
others in appearance to excite suspicion, ordinarily close 
inspection at the base of the tail shows what has been 
done. Exhibitors generally consider this practice one of 
the least tempting forms of illegitimate fitting. There is 
always more than an even chance of its being detected by 
the judge, or suspected by a competitor who will demand 
inspection with certain exposure. There is no explaining it 
away, and wherever the person known to have practiced 
it exhibits afterwards his birds will be closely examined for 
all forms of faking. 

The Sum of the Matter 
The five illustrations that have been given are repre- 
sentative of the different phases of faking. The statements 
of the attitude of exhibitors in these cases give a fair idea 
of the general consensus of opinion of expert breeders and 
exhibitors as to what is and what is not legitimate in this 
line. There are a few who take extreme high ground 
in regard to right and wrong in these practices, but the 
majority consider them not so much from a rigid abstract 
moral point of view, as from the point of view of what is 
fair between exhibitors. With them it is a question of 
playing a game according to the rules, rather than a ques- 



ETHICS OF FITTING AND FIXING BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



25 



tion of LAW, and they understand the rules to be the rules 
as construed and applied by those versed in the game — 
breeders, judges, show managers, with (of late years) the 
American Poultry Association as the final interpreter ot 
the rules which it makes. 

The common general understanding of the rules is 
the outgrowth of experience with the practical application 
of the rules under many different circumstances, as inter- 
preted differently by different judges, as sometimes obvi- 
ously misapplied, and as variously affecting the interests 
of individuals and the morale of the fraternity. Novices 
generally, read the rules and construe them literally in 
accordance with a logical application of conventional moral 
precept?. But the more one knows of the conditions of 
exhibiting, of the character of exhibitors and of the re- 
sults of what appears to the average novice a low ethical 
standard among poultry exhibitors, the less ready he is to 
condemn them and their philosophy. 

An important factor in the forming of opinion in mat- 
ters like this is knowledge of the history of the matter 
and of the conditions which influenced opinion in the ear- 
ly stages, creating what may be called the traditional sen- 
timent. For a great many years now the debatable and 
unfair practices of poultry exhibitors have been largely 
along the line of removal or concealment of superficial 
faults in specimens of generally superior quality and, as a 
rule, valuable for breeding purposes in spite of faults which 
greatly reduce their chances of winning prizes, or perhaps 
disqualify them for competition. But when the rules 
against faking were first promulgated the conditions were 
very different. 

Review of Efforts to Prevent Unfair Practices 

Just when or where the rule that birds must be 
shown "in their natural condition" was first made is not 
known, The earliest statement of it that I have seen 
in the premium list of the show held in Boston in 1872. In 
this I find: 

"Rule 10 — All specimens will be exhibited in their nat- 
ural condition. Pulling false feathers, coloring, shaping 
spurs, inserting or splicing a feather, and similar practices 
are prohibited. Any violation of this rule shall exclude 
the pen from competition. Games only being the excep- 
tion = o far as to render the ordinary docking and trim- 
ming admissible." 

Premium lists of some of the small New England 
shows ten years later contain a similar rule, but others 
lack it, and it is worthy of note that no such rule appears 
in the "Rules and Regulations" of the Worcester, Mass , 
Show of 1883, which was the most important show in the 
country that year, being held under the joint auspices of 
the Central Massachusetts Poultry Club, the Middlesex 
Poultry Association and the American Poultry Association 
— the latter holding at the same time the convention which 
considered and adopted the 1S83 edition of the "Standard 
of Perfection." 

■ From the above facts it would appear that the prac- 
tices called faking were so prevalent in 1872 as to lead 
the managers of the most important show of that year to 
make a rigid rule against them, but that as late as 1883 
the sentiment of fanciers was so tolerant of it that the pro- 
moters of a show bidding for large entries did not deem 
it advisable to apply the rule. Men who were exhibiting 
in America at this period and earlier have often stated in 
recent years that gross forms of faking, now generally 
rare, were then common, and were quite generally consid- 
ered excusable, if not absolutely necessary and justifiable. 
The reasons for this are plainly apparent when we consid- 



er how few of the old breeds and varieties were actually 
bred to such excellence as has since become common, and 
consider too, that nearly all the new varieties that have 
since become very popular were in the early stages of mak- 
ing in the period from about 1870 to about 1S9S. 

The faking of those days was not, as now, the removal 
of small faults, but the removal of large, or numerous, de- 
fects by methods, or on a scale, that left evidence of what 
had been done that was plain to all persons- who looked 
birds over carefully, and that often very materially altered 
the appearance of a specimen. Those who first made the 
rule, and those who followed them in adopting it, knew 
perfectly well that it could not be rigidly enforced. They 
also knew well just about how far the artificial removal of 
faults could be carried without detection and with im- 
provement to the appearance of a specimen. They had no 
expectation that breeders would comply strictly with the 
rule that all birds must be shown "in their natural condi- 
tion," with no artificial manipulation at all. Their imme- 
diate purpose was to exclude specimens naturally so de- 
fective that the removal of their faults left them in a con- 
dition which was obviously not natural, and which to a 
fancier's eye was quite as unsightly as the original fault. 
Their further object was to emphasize the importance of 
breeding out defects. 

At first the rule appeared very objectionable both to 
those who held that the shows ought not to make a rule 
that could not be enforced uniformly against all faking, 
and to those who wanted the old freedom in fitting for ex- 
hibition. But the operation of the rule in practice soon 
convinced most of those interested in it that so far from 
leading to an increase of skill in faking and of skilled fak- 
ers, it steadily improved the situation, and had the effect 
of limiting artificial fitting generally to matters requiring 
little effort and no unusual degree of skill. The rule soon 
came into universal use as a show rule, and when in 1905 
"faking" was for the first time defined in the Standard 
glossary, the definition — after specifying various forms of 
faking— concluded with: "In fact, any self-evident at- 
tempt on the part of an exhibitor to deceive the judge and 
thus obtain an unfair advantage in competition." 

In this connection it should be observed that the 
American Poultry Association — representing the views of 
the body of breeders, exhibitors and judges — does not de- 
scribe practices as right or wrong. It simply considers 
what is fair as between exhibitors, judges and other exhibi- 
tors, and leaves to each individual to decide for himself 
as to the right and wrong of matters concerning him. This 
is not because of any indifference to the right and wrong 
of such matters, but because the more one knows of the 
possible applications of unquestionably legitimate methods 
in fitting fowls for exhibition, the better he appreciates 
the difficulties of making rigid rules to fit all cases. 
Further Observations on the Difficulties of the Question 
— Prevention of Fading 

How the process of bleaching white fowls grew out of 
the simple practice of washing them has been told. In the 
fitting of both white and colored birds we have another 
somewhat similar case — protecting fowls during the 
growth of the adult plumage, either of young birds or of 
old birds in molt, from the amount of sunlight that would 
make some white birds brassy, and would fade most buffs, 
reds, browns and blues. 

Birds of all colors differ greatly in respect to the ef- 
fect of the sun upon the pigments of their plumage. It 
is not possible in the case of any bird to say in advance 
how the plumage will be affected by exposure to the 



26 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



sun. Only exposure will determine that. The birds that 
sunburn or fade easily soon lose much of the quality of 
new-grown plumage, and if exposed too much may be 
spoiled in color for exhibition purposes. Even while the 
plumage is growing, continuous exposure to strong sun- 
light may cause sunburn or fading during growth, so that 
that coat of feathers never has its normal — natural — color. 
Generally the proportion of specimens that can stand any 
amount of exposure to the sun without detriment to the 
color of the plumage is small. 

The question that arises here is whether a bird that 
has its color preserved from fading by keeping it out of 
the sun — really by keeping it under abnormal and in a 
sense' unnatural conditions — is shown in its naturar conov 
tion. People can take opposite views of that and argue 
interminably. The practical phase of the question is that 
by growing or molting colored birds in the shade a breed- 
er can put fadable specimens into a show on an equality 
with those that are nonfadable — or practically so; just as 
by bleaching he can put creamy white specimens in on an 
equality with pure white. And it does not take a great deal 
of intelligent consideration to convince that as far as com- 
petition at shows is concerned such inequalities have to be 
tolerated. There is no practical way of distinguishing in 
the showroom between specimens of pure color, or of 
sound color, and those that by some simple process can 
be put into the show looking just like them. This is true 
also of the removal of small defects generally. The judge 
must pass upon the birds as he sees them and in suspicious 
cases he is supposed to give the birds the benefit of any 
doubt that may exist in his mind. 

If the regulation of debatable practices depended, fin- 
ally upon what the shows and the judges, and even the 
sentiment of exhibitors, could do to control and check 
them, it is doubtful whether they would have been reduced 
in anything like the measure that they have been. The 
effective regulator is the commercial interest of the exhib- 
itor. In fitting a bird to show an exhibitor may go a little 
farther in some artificial process than he himself considers 
absolutely fair — may go beyond the limit he would place if 
it rested with him to fix the limit — because he feels quite 
sure that some of his competitors will not be quite so 
scrupulous. He does not consider that in going as far as 
they will he is unfair to them, or to the judge, who is 
presumed to have an expert knowledge of all things con- 
nected with his work, and who in his sphere is very much 
of an autocrat and can punish attempts to deceive him 
severely as long as he does so impartially. 

About Selling Faked Specimens 

But when it comes to selling birds that have been 
"faked" in any way for exhibition, or selling eggs from 
them, breeders generally have a more rigid code of ethics. 
They are of course, not all equally scrupulous, and occa- 
sionally nien engage in selling Standard poultry who syste- 
matically fake birds sent to' customers. But the great ma- 
jority of those who will strain a point of conscience to win 
over a competitor they reasonably assume is doing the 
same thing, are very careful about either selling birds that 
have faults it was deemed necessary to fix for exhibition, 



or using them where the results will disappoint customers 
and damage their own reputations. There are many easy 
ways of improving birds for exhibition, but comparatively 
few of these apply to the permanent removal of faults, and 
in no case can the consequences of selling a customer a 
bird that has had faults artificially concealed or removed 
be avoided. The faults are bound to come out either in 
the bird as faulty plumage grows again, or in its progeny 
as the natural form of an altered character — as the comb — 
is inherited. 

Whether from the competitive or the commercial 
point of view, it is to the breeder's interest to make every 
effort to so breed, and grow, and manage his birds, that 
occasion for removing or concealing faults will be reduc- 
ed to the minimum; but where so many characters are 
concerned, where the standards set are so exacting, where 
there is an ever present tendency to variation, tnere will 
always be many birds needing more or less simple special 
treatment to put them in perfect show condition, and it is 
a reasonable presumption that the practices that improve 
the appearance of good birds, and do not leave plain and 
unsightly evidence of the process, will always be used as 
far as it is advantageous and safe to use them. 

Realizing this, many interested poultrymen are of the 
opinion that it would be better to make the rules and reg- 
ulations applying to the fitting of birds for exhibition to 
conform to the common interpretations of them in prac- 
tice — that is, to make rules permitting the things that are 
commonly done by exhibitors, but prohibiting the practic- 
es which the majority of exhibitors do not use. It is 
much easier to propose a formula like this than to apply 
it — as the reader will fully understand by the time all the 
practices in fitting birds to show have been described. The 
most practical way of dealing with the matters appears to 
be that which circumstances developed: to make a short 
and literally rigid general rule, but to apply it as leniently 
as the sentiment of the fraternity seems to demand — to 
observe the spirit rather than the letter of the law. 

As Lewis Wright points out when discussing the sub- 
ject of "Faking and Trimming," in the last edition of "The 
Book of Poultry" (1902): "The evil has always existed; 
for its springs lie deep in human nature, and not altogeth- 
er among the baser motives." Farther on, elaborating the 
idea in the last phrase of that statement he says: "We 
have already hinted that some trimming was not done 
altogether from the baser motives. We knew a man who 
never exhibited, though he sold winners largely to those 
who did, yet who always removed single foul feathers. 
The reason he gave was that he 'could not bear to see 
them.' There are many who have that instinctive fancie'r's 
feeling very strongly, whether or not they act on it. We 
once read in a New England journal: 'It is impossible 
not to draw a little hard on a feather, when you know that 
but for that one your bird would be a perfect beauty.' 
Whoever does not understand that feeling has never been 
a true fancier; hence it is also that the best fanciers gen- 
erally feel a little gentle tolerance for that sort of thing. 
The fancier's passion for perfection in appearance they 
know is partly at the root of it." 



CHAPTER IV 
The Inalienable Rights of Exhibition Birds 

Modern Exhibition Poultry Are Not Only Bred in Beauty, But by Breeding and Training Have Been Made Acutely 

Conscious of Admiration and Responsive to Efforts to Make Them "Show Off"— Finest Exhibition Form 

Is Found Only in Birds of Perfect Development and in the Pink of Condition 



WE have considered what the exhibitor has to ex- 
pect from the judges and from his competitors. 
Before taking up the multitude of details— often 
relating to points which to the novice seem insignificant — 
of the handling and care of exhibition stock at all stages, 
it is desirable to consider particularly the reciprocal rela- 
tions of exhibitors and their birds, and the obligations 
which these impose upon the exhibitor. 

I once saw a copy of a little book on the preparation 
of birds for exhibition, upon the cover of which the owner 
had written: "Judging from contents the way of the suc- 
cessful exhibitor is a hard one." There is much truth in 

h i s observation, 
but it does not 
apply exclusively 
to the exhibitor 
of poultry, or pe- 
culiarly to the ex- 
hibition features 
of live stock pro- 
duction. High ex- 
cellence and su- 
periority in any 
phase of animal 
husbandry calls 
for similar unre- 
mitting attention 
to countless de- 
tails day by day. 
Such work i s 
drudgery or plea- 
sure according to 
the pleasure giv- 
en by successful 
results, but if the 
results are to be 
obtained the work 
has to be done. 
The breeding and feeding of hens for very high egg pro- 
duction, or the growing of extra-fine individual specimens 
of table poultry, may involve as much detail — in propor- 
tion to the number of birds — as the production and fitting 
of the finest exhibition specimens. 

Self-Consciousness in Beautiful Birds 

But there is a phase of the handling of exhibition 
stock that is lacking in the other lines: and that is the ap- 
parent capacity of animals and birds to respond to admi- 
ration of their appearance. We can go even farther than 
that and say that many beautiful animals and birds con- 
stantly invite human admiration, and are always ready to 
show off their attractions. This observation still holds 
good for the seeming exceptions where the characteristic 
features are not considered beautiful. That is because of 
changes in the tastes of fanciers and in the style of a char- 
acter popular with them. When we do not like a certain 
type the posing of a bird of that type often strikes us as 




EVERYBODY PLEASED 



ludicrous, but that does not alter the fact that, to the best 
of its appreciation of the situation, the bird is trying to at- 
tract the approving attention of the beholder. This qual- 
ity varies much in birds and animals, and is quite lacking 
in many, yet we see far more manifestations of it than are 
needed to establish the fact that birds enjoy heing admired, 
and also often show plainly the disposition to try to rind 
out what a person handling them wants them to do. 

When creatures naturally have such traits it is reason- 
able to suppose that many generations of exhibiting and 
training for exhibition, with constant selection of the 
birds that respond best to efforts to make them show their 
points to advantage, will greatly accentuate them. Fur- 
ther that birds of equal beauty may be very different in 
apparent consciousness of it, and in the moods and atti- 
tudes they show when in favor or in disgrace, when in or- 
der or disorder, is plain to anyone who knows them as. 
individuals. So let us take it for granted that an exhibi- 
tion bird has some feelings about its successes and failures 
in the showroom. Let us assume that, at the least, it feels 
better — enjoys the experience more — when it is a center 
of attraction than when it gets no attention. 

The Breeder and His "Handiwork" 

Next let us note and remember that the bird on ex- 
hibition is not merely representative of the breed and 
variety to which it belongs, or the strain or family from 
which it comes but is, above all, representative of its own- 
er's ability to breed, grow, select, condition, fit, train 
and show Standard birds. An exhibition bird is expected 
to win for the 
glory, and inci- 
dentally for the 
profit, of its own- 
er — to bring him 
high credit for 
taste, judgment, 
knowledge and 
skill as a breeder 
and in everything 
relating to the 
production of su- 
perior specimens. 
The bird can 
show only what 
it has by inheri- 
tance, care and 
training. If a 
bird shows more 
in the exhibition 
pen, or coop, at 
the time of judg- 
ing, than it show- 
ed at home, it is 
because the judge 
can show it bet- 
ter than the ex- 
hibitor. But few THERE'S NO SUCH WORD AS "SHOO' 




POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



birds show as well in the exhibition coop as they do at home, 
among familiar and comfortable surroundings, when pro- 
perly handled. As a rule, the exhibitor must allow for 
this and offset it as far as possible by leaving noth- 
ing undone for the bird that could increase its chances 
of winning. That is a simple statement that means a great 
deal more than it suggests. It is only as the occasion 
or opportunity to do the many things that enter into the 
production, conditioning and showing of exhibtion birds 
arise, one after another in continuous succession, that one 
appreciates all that it means. 

The Heritage of Quality 

The first right of an exhibition bird is to be "born in 
the purple" — to have a substantial inheritance of exhibi- 
tion qualities. It is as easy to "gather grapes of thorns, 
or figs of thistles," as to breed exhibition quality in Stand- 




' 'JIMMY" GLASGOW, FANCIER 
This bird certainly likes to be handled and admired 

ard poultry from strains or stocks that are not regularly 
producing a good proportion of offspring of exhibition 
quality. The breeder whose ambition does not go beyond 
winning at a small local show may not need the best ex- 
hibition quality to be obtained, but he does need Standard 
stock of the best winning lines to be had; for it is stock 
(directly or indirectly) from a few leading breeders, whose 
lines are often quite similar and more or less related, that 
usually wins wherever shown, being more in favor than 
other types. In general, certain grades of stock appear at 
certain grades or classes of shows, and everywhere the 
birds of a popular strain or style win over those of even 
better quality in another style. 

Timely Hatching 

The next right of an exhibition bird is to be hatched 
at the right time. This time — in each case — depends upon 
the time it is to be shown. A bird is at its best — in the 
pink of condition for exhibition — for only a short period, 
from the time that its plumage is full grown until the 
feathers begin to show wear, or the effects of laying. 



There are ways of hastening or retarding its develop- 
ment a little, but as far as possible the hatching of exhibi- 
tion birds should be timed to suit the shows at which they 
are to be exhibited. This point is of most importance to 
those who pay least attention to it — the small breeders who 
exhibit at only one show. 

The big breeder who hatches through a period of 
several months can find specimens fit for shows through 
a period of about the same length of time. The breeder 
who raises only a few must either time the hatching with 
reference to showing at a definite period, or make his de- 
cision where he will exhibit in accordance with the devel- 
opment of the birds he has to show. As a rule, the former 
is the better policy because it gives greater definiteness 
and directness to his plans and work throughout the sea- 
son, and further because if one goes to all the trouble and 
expense of showing he ought to make it a point to ex- 
hibit at the accessible show where his prospects of win- 
ning are best, and the win is worth more to him. 
Exhibition Stock Needs More Room Than Other Stock 

The next right of an exhibition bird is to conditions 
of life that give a young bird the opportunity to make its 
best possible development, or an old one the opportunity 
to renew its youth as far as possible. The bird that is to 
be exhibited is entitled to much more in this instance than 
the bird that is not, for its quality is to be tested by high- 
er and severer standards. Many novices, and some who 
do not consider themselves in that class, have the idea that 
the economical way to produce birds for exhibition is to 
grow as many as there is room for according to estimates 
of capacity of land or coops in ordinary poultry growing, 
and then select the show specimens among them just long 
enough before they are to be shown to give time for such 
special conditioning as may be found necessary. The econ- 
omy in this practice is supposed to lie in the fuller utiliz'a- 
tion of equipment, and the great saving in time and labor 
by not giving exhibition birds special quarters and special 
care through a long season. 

If the purpose of the poultry keeper is to grow utility 
stock, and any birds of exhibition quality secured are ac- 
cepted as so much gain, that may be good practice. But if 
the object is to produce exhibition stock, and to develop 
every specimen that can be made an exhibition bird, it is 
the most wasteful method that could be devised, for by it 
no specimen attains its best, and a large proportion oi 
those that under suitable conditions would make exhibi- 
tion birds fall so far short in one or more particulars that 
no one wants them, either to show or to breed. In the 
stock of the average amateur breeder of Standard poultry 
there is rarely as much as one-fourth of the chicks pro- 
duced in a season that even with the best of conditions 
and care would make good show birds. An expert who 
has bred closely in line for many years may have less 
than one-fourth of his chicks unfit for exhibition. 

I have seen hundreds of ribbons on birds that were 
not disqualified, yet were so generally lacking in quality 
that they ought never to be given prizes. And again and ■ 
again I have been in the yards of breeders who had hun- 
dreds and sometimes thousands of birds, whose poorest 
specimens (after deformed birds were removed) were far 
superior to many winners of the season. At least half of 
this superiority is in the growing, and at least half of the 
better results in growing is to be accounted for by the fact 
that the breeder of exhibition stock who thoroughly un- 
derstands his business is careful not to overstock his land, 
or overcrowd the chickens in his coops; and unless he has 



THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF EXHIBITION BIRDS 



29 



culls in such large proportion that the rest get a good deal 
more room by the removal of culls at broiler size, he starts 
only about the number of chickens he can carry satisfac- 
torily to maturity. 

Good Breeders Have Few Culls 

The average amateur — especially the one with rather 
limited space — too often starts two or three times as 
many chickens as he can mature, and finds it hard to cull 
out as fast as he should because all are backward. So he 
keeps them on with conditions getting more and more 
unfavorable every day and wonders why he has nothing 
that comes up to his expectations. The only wise course 
in such cases is to cull for the points that one can form 
judgments on while the chick is small, and take the 
chances of discarding some specimens of greater merit 
on the points that cannot be estimated until growth is 
more advanced. The alternative is the failure of any spe- 
cimen to make its best development. It is better to sacri- 
fice some possible good ones while their quality is unde- 
termined, than to fail to produce a single one. 

The breeder for exhibition, whether producing on a 
large scale or on a small scale, ought within a very few 
years to have his stock at a point where the number of 
culls that it will not pay to raise is so small that he can 
hatch just about what he wants to keep on his premises. 
Until he reaches that stage he must either cull early and 
hard, taking his chances on errors, or waste much time, 
room and feed, on chicks that as they mature prove dis- 
appointing. It is only the good chicks that are worth 
growing. The chick of exhibition quality has a right to 
be identified, or to have its companions of poor quality 
identified, and to have its needs considered first before 
crowding in any way affects its growth. Checks of any 
kind are never made up. By as much as it was set back 
by any unfavorable condition, a chick at maturity falls 
short of what it would have been if all things were favor- 
able. The final effect of a check will be determined by 
the period at which it occurs. Early in life unfavorable 
conditions affect the size and rate of growth; later they 
have more influence on the plumage, and particularly upon 
quality of color. 

Many deformities of chickens, which are not noted un- 
til the fowl is pretty well grown, or perhaps not until it 
is taken up and inspected carefully for faults when being 




IDEAL CONDITIONS FOR GROWING CHICKS 

Scene on Farm of D. W. Young, Master Breeder S. C. White 
Leghorns, Monroe, N. Y. 

considered for exhibition, are due to overcrowding in 
brooders or brood coops, to rough treatment by hens un- 
fit for mothers, to huddling in roosting coops night after 
night because the caretaker will not take the trouble to 
teach them to roost, and to various other causes operat- 
ing in the period when to the unpracticed eye all chickens 
look very much alike. The faults of conditions in this 
early stage may be largely offset by extra-careful atten- 
tion. After a chick reaches the weaning age it needs near- 
ly as much house room, and more land room than an adult 
bird to make its best development. Also it needs clean- 
er land — land that has been less used for poultry. 
Importance of Individual Attention 

Finally, the exhibition bird at any age and stage of 
its development, has a right to all the time and attention 
the person responsible for its development can give it. 
Where it is one of many, its share may be limited, but the 
successful exhibitor handles and studies every bird of 
quality as much as possible. He does this not merely to 
make the bird show to better advantage, but because he 
himself takes the same kind of pleasure in working with 
it that a lover and expert handler of live stock of any kind 
does. He is on familiar terms with his birds. He knows 
them individually and they in him have confidence. 




GENERAL VIEW OF BREEDING AND CONDITIONING HOUSES AT WILLOW TREE POULTRY FARM, S. C. WHITE LEGHORN 

SPECIALISTS. BEVERLY FARMS. MASS. 



CHAPTER V 
Early Selection and Care of Exhibition Birds 

Common Faults Noticeable in Poultry at an Early Age — Faults Which Become Apparent Only As the Birds Grow and 
Develop — Exhibitors Must Learn to Anticipate the Changes in Type and Color in Individual Specimens 
That Will Come With Age and Consider Them Carefully in Selecting Birds to Show 



FULL and final judgment of the quality of exhibition 
stock can only be made upon each individual at ma- 
turity, or upon observation at an earlier stage of 
growth of some fault which is not tolerated in the exhibi- 
tion room. Some faults are plainly seen as soon as a chick 
is hatched, others appear at certain stages of its develop- 
ment — some early, others late. This makes the culling or 
weeding out of undesirables a more or less continuous pro- 
cess, the object of which is simply to get al! specimens 
of no exhibition grade out of the way that the others may 
have all the room and attention. This culling, when well 
done, is much more rigid than most amateurs and com- 
mercial breeders make it. Especially is this the case with 
regard to birds that are undersized and lacking in vitality. 
Few new breeders are willing to ruthlessly weed these out 
regardless of the possibility that some of them might turn 
out to be the best colored specimens. 

Undersized Chicks — Which to Cull and When 

There are very few cases where the preservation of 
undersized specimens of good, or even phenomenally good 
color turns out to be of real advantage. The most of 
these cases are found in 
breeds and varieties so new, 
and so generally of inferior 
color, or faulty in a particular 
point of color, that until there 
is miarked general improve- 
ment in color birds of extra- 
goo"d color are needed for 
breeding, even if the use of 
them retards improvement in 
other respects. On the same 
principle a novice — especially 
one who cannot afford to 
pay the prices necessary to 
secure exhibition stock of the 
highest quality — may find it 
to his advantage to use birds 
of superior color, no matter 
how deficient in size. But he 

cannot do this systematically .8& ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^M 
and regularly and build up a LOOKING THE Y 

line noted for all-round ex- 
cellence, and no matter how good the color of the weak 
and undersized individuals he uses as breeders may be, if 
he persists in using such he will soon find that all birds 
from such lines have the peculiar color faults that go with 
lack of vitality. We often find marvelously good color in 
a single specimen that has no other attraction, but never 
really fine and finished quality either in texture or color 
of plumage as a characteristic of a stock generally lacking 
in physical vitality. 

The prospective exhibitor at the present time should 
consider further that the whole trend of judging Standard 
poultry now is against decisions giving undue weight to 
color, and that the birds that have only color quality to 
recommend them have little chance of high honor in gobd 




competition. Under these conditions there is little ob- 
ject in keeping such birds unless they are desired for the 
owner's own breeding. Buyers as a class object to them, 
and even those who can use them want them at prices too 
low to make it really worth while to hold them. I have 
seen so many such birds kept to the detriment of a whole 
stock all through the growing season, and then sold in 
the later winter at prices that made the net return on them 
no greater than if they had been sold as broilers, that I 
do not think I can do, the poultry keeper disposed to keep 
them for their possible exhibition value a greater service 
than to urge him to cull out every undersized specimen at 
broiler size. 

How Wrong Conditions Cause Deformities 

Most breeders of Standard poultry cull out the crip- 
pled and badly deformed chicks found in the nests or incu- 
bators as they take them out. Slight deformities are gen- 
erally not noticed until the chicks get out of the puffball 
downy stage and the different parts and members of the 
body become more conspicuous. Many of the faults that 
now develop are neither constitutional nor congenital, but 
are due to some wrong con- 
dition or to accidents which 
did not appear serious. Hens 
that are rough with their 
chicks, often stepping on 
them while small and knock- 
ing them about considerably, 
no doubt make a great many 
cripples, and their treatment 
of the chicks undoubtedly re- 
tards their growth through 
the brooding period, and by 
so much affects their final 
development. The bones of a 
little chicken are not easily 
broken, by accidents which 
ordinarily befall it because 
they have a certain pliability 
and toughness that prevents 
fractures; but they are easily 
bent and the joints slightly 
twisted or dislocated either 
by rough treatment by hens, or by large chicks, or by the 
mass of chicks of the same size when they huddle togeth- 
er and pile up in the corners of brooders and roosting 
coops at night. 

From the time that his chickens begin to show their 
individual peculiarities the breeder of exhibition poultry 
should watch them as closely as he can for indications of 
slight malformations which may be due to crowding or 
accidents. If it is observed that in a lot which from their 
breeding would be supposed to grow very uniformly, and 
all straight and strong, there is more lack of uniformity 
than can be accounted for, some chickens being normal and 
standing out from the others, the probability is that some 
condition affecting the comfort and growth of the chicks 



IUXGSTERS OVER 



EARLY SELECTION AND CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS 



31 




'DUCKFOOT" AND 



WEBFOOT' 



IN FOWLS 



is responsible for the difference. Or if all the chicks fall 
somewhat short of what was expected in the way of de- 
velopment, though feed is right and weather conditions 
favorable, it should be apparent that some condition has 
affected or is affecting the development of the chicks. If 
the effects of previous conditions are to be remedied, or 
causes still operating removed, the poultry keeper must 
recognize the fact that the cause of trouble is in every case 
•a very simple one — easily found if all circumstances are 
properly taken into account; that there is nothing myste- 
rious about it; and that it is usually to be found in the 
class of conditions which come under the general head of 
mismanagement. 

The greatest source of trouble is the failure of at- 
tendants to see, night after night, that chicks at any 
age and under any conditions, are comfortable as they 
have disposed themselves for the night. This is one of 
the details of the care of live stock — and particularly of 
the care of young domestic animals in numbers — that be- 
comes intolerable drudgery to most 
persons, unless they really like to 
work with stock. Even to these it 
is often tiresome at the end of a 
hard days work to give the time 
that may be necessary to train 
chickens to spread out around a 




CROOKED BACK WITH OUTLINE OF SKELETON TO SHOW HOW IT IS CAUSED 



brooder stove, or on the floor or roosts of an unheated 
coop. However, it has to be done if the chicks are to de- 
velop normally and with the minimum of malformations 
caused by crowding at night; and the grower of exhibi- 
tion stock consults his own interests best when he takes 
the necessary precautions or actions to train the chicks 
right at the beginning of each stage of their care. It can 
be done either way — by making conditions in which the 
chicks will not crowd, or by training them not to crowd. 

Teaching Chicks Not To Crowd 

The simple methods of preventing chickens from 

crowding after the weaning age are: to keep them in small 

flocks, or in long, 

low and narrow 

shelters, or to use 

low roosting 

coops open on all 

sides. The latter 

is by far the best 

plan. The second 

answers well in 

emergencies and 

when only tem- 
porary quarters 

are required. 

Making groups so 

small that there 

is no danger at 

all of chicks 

crowding is prac- 
tical only when 

operations are on 

a small scale. 

Where it is not 

practical to use 

any of these pre- 
cautionary or pre- 
ventive measures, 

the only thing to 

do is to go to the 

coops night after night just at dusk, make the chickens 

distribute over the floor or on the roosts, and see that 
they stay so until it becomes dark, 
when they will, as a rule, keep the 
position they are in. Many people 
claim that they cannot train chickens 
to spread out properly no matter 
how persistently they work with 
them. Failure to break the chicks 
of bad habits of this kind is always 
due either to putting off training un- 
til the habit is firmly fixed, or to 
spasmodic attempts — caring for the 
chicks properly one or two nights, 
then neglecting them until bad ef- 
fects begin to show. 

If the chicks are trained to 
spread out on the floor or the roosts 
as they should, most of them will 
develop symmetrically — unless from 
a mating which would not give sym- 
metrical offspring. If attention is 
given to this early, any small ten- 
dencies to malformation that may 
be developing will be checked and 
may, as the bird grows, disappear 




CROOKED BREAST 



32 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



entirely. After such faults become con- 
spicuous they probably cannot be alto- 
gether corrected, but right conditions 
tend to improve them. 

Faults Noticeable in Chicks at an 
Early Age 

The common faults of form which 
can be detected early are: crooked 
backs, knock-knees, crooked toes, 
crooked breasts and crooked beaks. The 
bird's carriage of body and of the wings 

also show very early. A little later seriously faulty combs 
in cockerels of the large-connbed breeds will show for what 
they are, and slipped wings, twisted flight feathers and wry 
tails, may be detected. Early detection of crooked backs 
is easiest when they are looked for at the stage when 
only the wing feathers in medium and large breeds, or the 
wing and tail feathers in small breeds, are out, and the 
down on the back is so scant that the position and prom- 




KNOCK-KNEES 



inence of the bones is easily seen 

grown these are concealed, and when the plumage is long 
a considerable malformation of the back may pass unno- 
ticed until it is discovered in handling the bird by passing 
the hand over the back. 

Knock-knees are most common in birds with long nar- 
row bodies and long legs, but sometimes develop in ap- 
parently sturdy chickens. Twisted toes are commonly 
supposed to be hereditary. Some close observers say that 
both knock-knees and crooked toes are very often caused 



THREE COMMON FORMS OP CROOKED BEAK IN FOWLS 

by keeping chickens on smooth floors, or making them 
roost on flat roosts too wide for the toes to grasp. Their 
theory is that whenever the toes cannot take the flexed 
position which they naturally do on the round limbs which 
are the natural roosting places of fowls, or rounded 
perches of suitable width that are provided for them, the 
tendency is for either the toes, or the whole leg, or both, 
to take unnatural positions, leading to lateral curvature of 
toes, and to contraction of the posi- 
tion of the hocks with correspond- 
ing displacement of the feet at rest. 

I am inclined to think this view 
a little far-fetched, for it appears 
that the majority of birds that by 
breeding should have straight legs 
and toes retain them even on 
smooth floors and wide roosts. It 
is reasonable though, to suppose 
that a tendency to knock-knees 
may be increased under the condi- 
tions mentioned, and that some 
cases of crooked toes may occur 
from such' causes. Whatever the 
facts may be, the breeder of exhi- 
bition stock should keep floors well 
covered with sand or litter, and 
avoid the use of very wide perches 
except as they appear most useful 
After the feathers are when the chickens are first beginning to roost. 

Crooked Breasts 

Early roosting and unsuitable roosts have much more 
effect in making crooked breasts than anything else. 
Here their effects are plain and unmistakable, though by 




BOW-LEGS 




SLIPPED WING 



TWISTED FLIGHTS 



EARLY SELECTION AND CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS 



33 




LOPPED SINGLE COMB 



SIDE SPRIG ON COMB 



no means all birds subject to these influences develop 
crooked breasts. Nor, on the other hand, are these pre- 
cautions more than a partial insurance against the devel- 
opment of the fault in birds with a hereditary tendency 
toward it. The place to begin the prevention of faults 
and tendencies that pass from one generation to another 
is in the breeding pen. If the occasion for special precau- 
tions to check hereditary tendencies does not impress 
upon the exhibitor the advantage of reducing troubles 
as an exhibitor, by breeding to keep all faults that can 
be in any degree controlled by selection of the parent 
stock at a minimum, other preventive measures only 
half serve their purpose. 

Crooked Beaks 

Crooked beaks are probably mostly congenital, 
but are often overlooked when culling chickens as 
they come from the nest or machine. Indeed, in a 
large flock which the caretaker has not time to look 
over carefully, a crooked beak may not be noticed un- 
til the chick is of pretty good size, for unless it is 
very bad the fault is not so outstanding to the eye of 
the experienced poultry breeder as some others. 
Slipped and Twisted Wings 

Slipped wings — that is, wings that are not folded 
and "tucked" smoothly and neatly — are most common in 
heavy breeds that have least power of flight. This fact 
suggests that the cause is partial degeneration of the wing 
as a result of lack of use. In Brahmas, Cochins and Pekin 
Ducks the tendency for slipped wings to occur is very pro- 
nounced, even when the use of birds having the fault as 



breeders is carefully avoided. An appar- 
ently slipped or twisted wing should be 
closely examined at the last joint to deter- 
mine whether the wing is actually mal- 
formed, or only the flight feathers twisted. 
If there is any doubt on that point the bird 
should be kept to see how it develops. 
Many twisted flight feathers in young 
birds will come in straight in the first 
adult plumage. 

Wrong Carriage of Wings 
A very common fault in fowls is a ten- 
dency to carry the wings too high, with 
the points well up toward the base of the 
tail, and often with the points lapped over 
on the back. This fault is not common in 
well-bred exhibition stock, but the breeder 
who has never shown and so had his stock 
subjected to critical examination for all 
faults, not infrequently gets a lot of birds 
\\ itli it. If the wings are carried only a lit- 
tle high' in the young chick while the plu- 
mage on the back is still very scanty, the feathers of the 
back as they, grow will force the wings down a little, and 
the fault may not appear nearly as serious in the mature 
specimen as it did in the chick of two months. t A very bad 
wing of this kind is generally beyond remedy. In many 
cases it is associated with crookedness of the back at 
the shoulders. 




LOPPED ROSE COMB 



ROSE COMB WITHOUT SPIKE 




ROSE COMB WITH INGROWN SPIKE 



HOLLOW ROSE COMB 



Wrong Carriage of Body 

The tendency of a bird to carry the forward part of 
the body lower than is considered ideal for its type is us- 
ually due to the body not being properly balanced on the 
legs, and is apparent when the chick is quite small, though 
not so conspicuous that the untrained observer will 
notice it. If it is a prevailing tendency in a flock it 
may be good policy to try what can be done to reme- 
dy it by making the chicks lead as active a life as is 
consistent with good growth. This gives better mus- 
cular development and a more upright carriage. 
Where only a few birds show it, corrective measures 
may be postponed to the time of special fitting for 
the show. 

Faults in Combs 
Some faults in combs can usually be detected al- 
most as soon as the combs begin to grow, and various 
faults in combs can easily be remedied at this time. In 
the rose comb varieties the rear spike is often "in- 
grown." A very simple operation at this time will 



34 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 7 



make the spike protrude and grow out right. Side sprigs 
that show early can also be removed. Generally it is not 
worth while to go into these points carefully unless the 
birds are in appearance so promising that the breeder 
wants to be forehanded in everything relating to preparing 
them for exhibition. ' 

Eyes Should Match in Color 
It is well at this stage to observe whether the eyes 
are alike in color. Difference between them does not call 
for discarding a bird from consideration for a show bird, 
but where stock has to be reduced such points will often 
decide whether or not a bird shall be kept. 

Uncertainty of Development of Plumage Color 

Culling chicks at this age for color is limited to those 
which are so far from normal coloration for standard 
chicks of their kind that it is certain they will never have 
good color. A few of these may appear in chicks from 
well-bred stock, but they are likely to be numerous only 
in new varieties which produce comparatively few speci- 
mens of good color. A breeder who has intimate knowl- 
edge of his stock and of the peculiarities of color it may 
show at different ages, can often form a pretty good idea 
how chicks of certain lines with certain color characteris- 
tics in their chick feathers will develop in their adult 
plumage. Lacking this knowledge even a very expert 
breeder may be entirely wrong in his estimates. There 
are faults of plumage in the chick that disappear at ma- 
turity, and there are faults of the plumage of aged birds 
that sometimes develop in the first adult plumage imme- 
diately as it reaches completion of growth, and may come 
even earlier — like premature baldness or gray hair in hu- 
man beings. 

The bird that to anyone familiar with the appearance 
of good specimens of its kind in the early stages of its 
growth appears to have faults beyond remedy (that looks 





like a real cull), 
rarely turns out a 
good show bird. 
The only excep- 
tions to this rule 
that I know are 
the cases where 
really bad faults 
in the chick feath- 
ers regularly dis- 
appear when the 
adult plumage 
grows. These ap- 
pear to be cases 
where the chick 
plumage is inher- 
ited from one an- 
cestor, or ances- 
tral line, and the 
adult plumage 
from another; or 
where the charac- 
ter of the plu- 
mage at different periods of growth seems to correspond 
with its character at different stages of the development of 
the quality it now shows. Cases of the first class may be 
regarded as freak cases of heredity. Usually they appear in 
the progeny of a single hen, but occasionally they become 
established as characteristic of a strain, and if that strain 
becomes very popular their characteristic may become so 
common that it appears regularly. 

One of the most interesting cases of this kind that I 
have known occurred some years ago in a popular black- 
red variety. In this, as in nearly all black and dark varie- 
ties, there may be a good deal of white — especially in the 
flights — in the chick plumage that will disappear in the 
adult plumage. A well-known breeder of the variety, 
who had for years bred to eliminate white in plumage at 
any stage, went to the yards of another breeder for biooa 
to improve the color of his females. In mating this stock 
with his own he found the results most disappointing in 
that some of the pullets came with so much white in their 



TWISTED INNER FLIGHT FEATHERS 




WRY TAIL 



SQUIRREL TAIL 



EARLY SELECTION AND CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS 



35 



wings that he rated them as hopeless culls, and killed 
them at an early age. Meantime he was not getting any 
pullets as good at maturity as the combination of blood 
lines he had made ought to give. Thinking it over he 
came to the conclusion that he had perhaps been in too 
great a hurry in killing the white-winged pullets. The next 
season he let them grow, and found that they regularly 
molted the white chick feathers and replaced them with 
sound-colored adult feathers, and that they made his best 
birds. 

Early Selection of Adult Birds 

Theoretically it would be supposed that an exhibitor 
and breeder of exhibition poultry would have culled out 
and disposed of all specimens that were of no value for 
exhibition purposes shortly after they arrived at matur- 
ity; or that if one is carrying both exhibition and utility 
grades of stock, the separation at maturity could be final, 
leaving no occasion to consider at the beginning of their 
second year birds rejected as show birds the previous sea- 
son. But a very large proportion of birds in some color 
varieties do not show the same quality of color in their 
first and second years, and in nearly all breeds there are 
many specimens that change their type quite a little as 
they age. So it is necessary in making definite selection 
of birds for exhibition, and also for breeding, to consider 
very carefully the characteristics that change with age. As 
the balancing of slight faults in mating to produce stand- 
ard exhibition specimens requires the use in the breed- 
ing pens of many birds that are either never of real exhibi- 
tion quality, or attain their best exhibition form only dur- 
ing a part of their lives, the occasion for carrying such 
birds in the seasons when they are not exhibited is not the 
burden on an exhibitor which a novice might suppose. 

Early selection of adult birds is of most importance 
when birds are wanted to show at fall fairs. It takes 
about three months for either a young or an old bird to 
grow a full coat of feathers, hence to make sure that he 
has allowed ample time to do all the things that will con- 
tribute to the finest development and finish, the exhibitor 
should know three months before he expects to make an 




wm 



exhibit just 
what birds he 
has that are 
promising ma- 
terial for condi- 
tioning for that 
show. If he has 
been studying 
and observing 
his birds care- 
fully he knows 
the old ones 
much better 
than the young 
ones, for he has 
seen them grow 
their first adult 
plumage, and 
has seen how 
well the colors 
in it hold. To' TWISTED HACKLE FEATHERS 

a considerable extent also the changes in shape that come 
with advancing age are indicated by the time a bird is a 
year old, though because of the extent to which the devel- 
opment of plumage affects apparent shape, and because the 
second adult coat of plumage is often more abundant than 
the first, especially in the hackle, saddle and tail plumage 
of males, it may not be possible to foresee the extent of 
aucn changes very accurately. 

In all such matters a thorough acquaintance with the 
stock, and knowledge of the characteristics of the lines 
bred is of very great help. The exhibitor who has been 
closely following the annual changes in the plumage of 
the birds of a few lines for a few years can know pretty 
near what to expect in his adult birds. 

With regard to changes in the form and type of 
birds, the reader can appreciate the conditions with re- 
spect to these best if he will consider that the birds of dif- 
ferent types and breeds, and to a considerable extent fam- 
ilies, strains and individuals in each breed, present just 
such differences in this respect as he observes in the peo- 
ple of his acquaintance. In poultry, as in people, many 




WRONG CARRIAGE OF BODY 
Wings too low ; legs too far forward 



WRONG CARRIAGE OP BODY 
Wing-tips too high; legs too far back 



M, 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



individuals keep just about the same condition and weight 
from the time they reach maturity until they begin to tail 
with age, when they become more or less emaciated. Oth- 
ers begin to put on flesh sometime after reaching full 
growth — some comparatively early, some later in life. 
Some of these make a progressive increase in fat until it 
is a burden to them, others acquire an amount not at all 
burdensome and keep in about this same condition while 
in normal health throughout life. The only class of de- 
velopment in human beings we cannot find paralleled in 
poultry is extreme fleshiness very early in life. 

The breeder who has noted the changes in individuals 
in his stock has learned to know, partly by his knowledge 
of the breeding of the birds, and partly by observing, that 
certain characteristics of form in early life are either in- 
variably, or in particular lines and families, associated 
with certain later changes in form. Such differences as 
this are generally too inconspicuous to be described in 
words or pictures. Indeed, the estimate based only on in- 
spection is not at all dependable unless supplemented by 
knowledge of family history and observation of the usual 
changes in the individuals of a line. I cannot tell the 
reader how to do it, nor can anyone. Information can go 
no farther than to say that the cultivation of the habit 
of observing individual birds closely enables a breeder of 
exhibition poultry to judge with considerable accuracy 
what changes age will bring in either form or color to 
birds of his breeding. 

Usual Changes in Type with Age 

While there are some birds, both male an 
that hold for several years the form they have at 
turity, the greater number become somewhat 
Consequently, it is usually safe to as- 
sume that a cockerel or pullet that in 
its first maturity is fuller formed than 2+. 
is usual in birds of its age, so that ex- 
cept for its spurs a cockerel might pass 
as a cock, and a pullet would easily 
pass as a hen, will be too heavy in its 
second year to show an attractive fig- 
ure and carriage. The tendency may 
not be plainly marked at the close of 
the breeding season, when both males 
and femjales are apt to be a little down 
in condition, but when the males are 
separated from the females, and the 
latter stop laying, and both are fed as 
liberally as they must be to enable them 
to grow new plumage free from faults 
that come when birds are fed too spar- 
ingly, many of them' will put on flesh 
and fat very quickly, with disappoint- 
ing results as to the preservation of the 
type they showed in their first season. 

How to Hold Correct Type 
The best way to prevent this is by 
giving the birds good range, and limit- 
ing their feed quite closely to "hard 
grain. Where this is not practical much 
can be done by liberal feeding of green 
feed, by compelling a reasonable 
amount of exercise scratching for the 
grain fed, by using moist mashes spar- 
ingly, and late in the evening each day 
giving the birds an opportunity to fill 
up on either grain or dry mash. By 



this method good form and vigor may be preserved in 
many specimens that as they are usually handled through 
the period between the breeding and the show season, lose 
both form and condition to the disappointment of expecta- 
tions of winnings and the diminution of their future breed- 
ing value. 

As the only differences in Standard descriptions be- 
tween cock and cockerel, hen and pullet, are the differ- 
ences in Standard weights, and the lower weight require- 
ments for young birds are not made primarily or properly 
for the purpose of establishing regular differences in 
weight between birds under a year and those over that 
age, but simply to prevent the showing of immature birds; 
the mature adult form, in the type within the Standard 
specifications which those whose ideas dominate in judg- 
ing at any time approve, is really the standard of typical 
shape by which both old and young birds are judged. 
From what has been said of the variation in the changes 
of form with age in different individuals and families, it 
is plain that under these conditions the cockerel that 
looks most like a cock, and the pullet that looks most like 
a hen will, other things being equal, win in classes of 
birds of their own age but less full in form. 

The Adult Type is the Standard Type 

Considering the point of breed type independently it 
would appear that, inasmuch as many (possibly most) 




3S36 35 35 36 3* 35 36 
SINGLE COMB FOWL — MALE 



THE SECTIONS OF 
1 — crown of head; la — point of comb; lb — throat; 2 — beak; 3 — nostril; 4 — comb; 5 — 
face; 6 — eye; 7 — wattle; 8 — ear; 9 — ear-lobe; 10 — hackle; 11 — front of hackle; 12 — breast; 
13 — cape; 14 — shoulder; 15 — wing bow; 16 — wing front; 17 — wing bar (coverts); 18 — wing 
bay (secondaries); 19 — flights (wing primaries); 20 — flight coverts; 21 — back; 22 — sweep 
of back; 23 — saddle hangers; 24 — sickles; 25 — lesser sickles; 26 — tail coverts; 27 — main 
tail; 28 — bodv feathers; 29 — fluff; 30 — thigh; 31 — hock; 32 — shank; 33 — spur; 34 — ball 
of foot; 35 — toe; 36 — toenail. 



EARLY SELECTION AND CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS 



37 



birds are fuller formed as cocks and hens than as cock- 
erels and pullets, the Standard specifications should be 
made to show what appears as the normal difference in 
shape of the same birds at different ages. But the wis- 
dom of the policy of specifying certain differences between 
the typical first adult form and the typical form in lat- 
er periods of life is very doubtful. The probable effect 
of it would be quite opposite to what is desired, leading 
many judges to favor cockerels that had neither the cor- 
rect adult type nor the promise of making it, because 
they felt it necessary to emphasize the difference. In ad- 
dition, to split the Standard on a point like this would in- 
evitably tend to further division on other characters where 
a certain ripeness of development comes with age. 

The practical control of all such points lies in the 
fact that it is to the interest of the breeder to produce 
birds that will show good exhibition form for as many 
years as possible, and this result is best secured in the 
birds that hold the weight they make at their first matur- 
ity or increase it very little. The more such birds he has 
the easier it is for a breeder to select and fit a winning 
string year after year. Such birds are further valuable 
from the fact that they usually keep in good breeding con- 
dition too. They may not invariably be of special value as 
breeder^, but the stock will benefit by as much of this char- 
acteristic of keeping fit to a comparatively advanced age 
as is distributed in it through their use in the breeding 
pen. In selecting birds for exhibition a breeder will take, 
as far as he needs them, young birds that he knows he 




-cape ; 



THE SECTIONS OF A SINGLE COMB FOWL— FEMALE 
1 — crown of head; 2 — beak; 3 — nostril; 4 — comb; 5 — point of comb ; 6— face ; 
8 — wattle: 9 — ear; 10 — ear-lobe; 11 — throat; 12 — hackle; 13 — front of hackle; 1 
15 — breast; 16 — shoulder; 17 — wing-bow; 18 — wing front; 19 — wing bar; 20 — wing bay (sec- 
ondaries); 21 — flights (wing primaries); 22 — flight coverts; 23 — back; 24 — sweep of back; 
25 — cushion; 26 — main tail; 27 — tail coverts; 28 — lesser tail coverts; 29 — bodv feathers; 
30 — fluff; 31 — thigh; 32 — hock; 33 — shank; 34 — spur; 35 — ball of foot; 36 — toe; 37 — toenail. 



will not want to show again, and he will also mark to 
hold over to show the next year some that do not show 
good form in their first year. But in selecting breeders he 
will give the preference to the birds that can qualify for 
strong competition at any age, and will hatch as many 
chicks as he can from such matings. 

Color More Difficult to Hold than Shape 
The proportion of individuals of high quality that in 
their third year and after can compete with birds of the 
quality they had as two-year-olds is very small, but this is 
due more to the failing of color in parti-colored birds than 
to anything else. On shape alone a good proportion of 
high-class Standard stock can hold good exhibition form 
for from three to six years. The heavier breeds usually 
show the effects of age earliest, for in them the tendency 
to put on fat at maturity is very prevalent, and is controll- 
ed only when conditions and care are directed continuous- 
ly to that end. It is rare to find a Brahma or Cochin that 
will show good type and carriage on exhibition in its 
third year, except in response to motions of a hand or 
judging stick to make it take the desired pose. Yet oc- 
casionally hens are seen that at four years old are as 
smooth, and carry themselves as well as when in their 
prime; and there are also cocks that except for their spurs, 
and a little slowness of movement, appear as good as they 
ever were. 

In the lighter breeds many specimens retain their best 
form, style and vigor, until four or five years of age, and 
an occasional bird will hold its color as long. In all 
breeds the method of handling has much to do with this 
result. The worst cause of what is really premature decay 
in exhibition quality is indifferent care and mismanage- 
ment between show seasons. Too many poultry exhibi- 
tors follow the policy of letting down in condition, es- 
pecially after the breeding season, and then trying to bring 
the birds back by forcing methods. Re- 
sults are far more sure, and in the long 
run easier and more satisfactory, if the 
birds are never allowed to go out of 
condition. It is to an exhibitor's inter- 
£7' est to take care to insure this, and at 
the same time to breed to the lines that 
give birds that are easily kept in condi- 
tion without constant adjustment of the 
diet and habits to the tendencies toward 
undesired developments. 

Normal Differences in Young and Old 
Birds 

What may be regarded as the nor- 
mal difference in form between a well- 
developed cockerel and cock, or pullet 
and hen, is simply a very little more ap- 
parent substance and solidity of form. 
There is usually a similar increase in 
the character of comb and wattles, and 
the hackle, saddle and tail of the male 
are more fully developed. In color 
points the general tendency is just the 
other way, and both the rate and the 
extent of divergence from characteris- 
tics of the first adult plumage are com- 
monly much greater than the changes 
in form which age brings. In general, 
as to all colored birds, we may say 
that the expectation is that every bird 
will lose color to some extent, and that 



38 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



most birds will lose a noticeable amount or degree of color, 
and some a great deal. These losses have the general ten- 
dency to make a bird that is good Standard color in its 
first adult plumage too light after its first annual molt; 
and a bird that in its first adult plumage has faults due to 
excess of pigment nearer to Standard after each succeed- 
ing molt, until which it may be a very good Standard-col- 
ored bird, after which it begins to fall below the require- 
ments for quality in color. With the general tendency to 
loss of pigment with age, there are some birds that remain 
practically sound in color for four or five years. These 
however, are exceptional. 

In looking over birds at the end of the breeding sea- 
son for the purpose of deciding which are to be kept for 
their possible exhibition value, a breeder needs to be able 
to remember each as it appeared when at its best. Un- 
less he can do this he has only half the knowledge needed 
to make wise choices. Besides the loss of pigment in the 
new plumage each succeeding molt, there is the fading in 
each coat of feathers to consider. This varies as much in 
individual birds as the fading from year to year. In many 
cases it is far greater than the reduction of pigment in the 
new coat, and it is quite invariably some greater, as shown 
by the fact that the new coat, though lighter than the old 
originally was, is deeper in color as well as cleaner and 
fresher than the old coat just before molting. As to 
brightness and freshness of appearance the new coat will 
almost certainly look better than the old one did previous 
to the molt. But the fading of the coat after it has 
grown does not eliminate any of its original faults. The 
undesired appearances of pigment may become less conspic- 
uous because of the dulling of the color, but that does 
not give clean surface or sharply defined markings. 

Examples of Common Changes in Color with Age 
In the new coat of feathers many small faults may 
disappear; and the opposite fault may appear in a sec- 
tion which before was free from it. Thus, mossiness — the 
prevalence of small dark flecks — in the ground color of 
penciled and laced varieties may be molted out in sections 
where it appeared, and the same reduction of pigment that 
gives this result may diminish the intensity of the darK 
markings. The breeder not only needs to be able to recall 
to his mind's eye the picture of each specimen as it was, 
but he needs also to be able to see in his mind's eye the 
picture of the bird as it will be when a degree of loss of 
color that eliminates faults which kept it from qualify- 
ing as a show specimen in the preceding season, has work- 
ed its effect also on the sections that were right at that 
time. With respect to the birds that were right in color 
the preceding season, he needs to be able to picture them 
as they will be after losing some of their pigment. This 
is the easier of the two processes, because the change 
will be all loss and no gain. 

In the Ermine Color Pattern 

The changes that take place in the ermine color pat- 
tern (white with black points) afford the simplest and best 
examples of the effects of color changes with age, putting 
birds that in their first plumage were good Standard col- 
or out of consideration for exhibition in following years, 
and making Standard-colored specimens of birds that in 
their first adult plumage were so full of color faults that, 
to one not aware of the changes that time would bring, 
they appeared hopeless culls. This pattern is seen in the 
Light Brahma, the Columbian Plymouth Rock and Wyan- 
dotte and the Light Sussex. Ideally this pattern shows a 
white surface, as the birds stand, in all but the neck and 



tail sections, the saddle of the male, and the foot feather- 
ing in both male and female. The main tail is solid black; 
the coverts and the hackles are black edged with white, 
or white with black stripe in centers (according to the 
form of description adopted); the saddle of the male car- 
ries a more or less black striping; and a part of the foot 
feathering in the Brahma is black edged with white; the 
flights of the wings are predominantly black, but the sec- 
ondaries must have enough white so that the folded wing 
will be white. 

To get the desired combination regularly, with strong 
color in the black sections and parts of feathers, and no 
black showing in the surface of white sections, is next to 
impossible. Good quality in black parts is regularly as- 
sociated with the presence of undesirable black markings 
on the surface adjoining black or partly black sections, 
and with much black — in the form of slate — in the under- 
color. Especially when the black in the wing in both 
sexes and in the saddle of the male is emphasized, there 
is a . pronounced outcropping of black feathers, or 
feathers with small black spots prevalent in the web, at 
the front of the neck and shoulders, on the back, and on 
the thighs. The style of bird in this color pattern that is 
favored changes from time to time. Twenty years or more 
ago, before the other varieties with the color came out, 
Light Brahma breeders regarded the purity of the white 
sections as of cardinal importance, and tried to get other 
sections as good as posisble without sacrificing white sur- 
faces. The modern style demands extra good black in 
wings and strength in black sections, and if these points 
are secured, is tolerant of the outcroppings of black in 
sections which the Standard still describes as white. 

Whatever may be the style in favor, few specimens 
that in their first adult plumage show good black markings 
in the sections containing black, and little or no black in 
white sections, can in their next year win against the 
darker birds which originally had so much smut on back, 
neck, at shoulders and on thighs, that they could not in 
that form be considered as show birds, but which when 
they molt these faults out make the richest and handsom- 
est colored birds. In neither case, as a rule, is the white 
surface perfectly clean. Nearly always a good deal of 
plucking of feathers with a little black or gray in the web 
is necessary before the bird is ready to show. But the 
exhibitor who is out to win finds year after year that while 
now and then a specimen of phenomenal quality and great 
stability of color may win year after year in its class, most 
of his best selections for strong competition are birds not 
equally valuable in the old and young classes. 

' In the Black and White Mottled Varieties 

In the black and white mottled varieties — as the An- 
cona and the Houdan — we have a similar case, but with 
the difference that both the number and the size of the 
white mottled tips increase with age. It is plain that 
where such changes take place the same bird cannot win 
in the young class one year, and in the old class the next, 
unless in one or both years there is some condition other 
than color determining the award. It could not win as 
a young bird and then also win as an old bird against a 
bird that duplicated the form in which it won as a young 
bird. It may, and frequently does, happen that a young 
bird that is too dark, or an old one that is too light, will 
win over a bird nearer the Standard color. An exhibitor 
will often take chances on such a bird if it is particularly 
good in other respects, and (or if) notwithstanding its 
failure fully to meet Standard color requirements, it ap- 



EARLY SELECTION AND CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS 



39 



pears the most promising he has for a certain show. Also 
an occasional bird does hold color so that it can win year 
after year on its color quality; but such birds are so rare 
that their existence does not affect the general necessity 
for holding birds too dark to show in their first year to 
show when molting has given them better Standard color. 
An exhibitor who fails to do this will find that he is very 
short of birds that meet Standard color requirements when 
in the cock or hen plumage. 

In Buff and Red Varieties 

Practically all buff and red birds fade to a no- 
ticeable degree in the spring and early summer, and a 
large proportion of the ordinary stock of varieties of these 
colors fade badly and very unevenly. Most birds will molt 
a little lighter than their original color, but an occasional 
one will be much lighter. 

Until a bird has gone through an annual molt the 
probable degree of loss of color can only be conjectured, 



birds are practically laced or spangled, with markings so 
little darker than the ground that the unevenness of color 
is apparent only on very close observation. At a little 
distance the color appears perfectly sound. Besides reg- 
ular markings in such variable colors there are often ir- 
regular, blotchy markings on each feather. All these 
faults tend to develop in more pronounced form in each 
coat of feathers as it fades with exposure, and also to in-' 
crease in succeeding molts. 

What has been said of the vagaries of buff color ap- 
plies to red, with the difference that as some black is re- 
quired in the plumage of all red varieties the presence of 
black where it is not wanted is more troublesome. 

In general, birds that are in their first adult plumage 
of a rich red color, whether of the lighter red formerly 
considered most desirable, or of the rich wine color now 
fashionable, hold their color better than the light bird 
with a "bricky'' cast in the plumage, or in some sections 




THREE-FOURTHS GROWN COCKERELS PLAINLY SHOWING WHAT THEIR ADULT TYPE WILL BE 



These three White Plymouth Rock cockerels were photographed at Owen Fa 
his age, but will be small and too fine. No. 2, in center, is a model bird for his &i . 
No. 3, at right hand, will make a large bird, but not with either the substance or finish of the bird 



in June. No. 1, at left hand, is an attractive bird at 
f the kind that make good size and Standard type. 
center. 



though it is safe to assume that most birds will lose about 
what is usual in their line and family. After observation 
of one molt a breeder can judge pretty accurately about 
how much lighter a bird will be with each succeeding molt. 
Occasionally his judgment will be at fault because the con- 
dition of the bird or some circumstances affecting the 
quality of color of plumage is different in two years com- 
pared. 

The lightest even-colored buff cockerels and pullets 
can rarely be shown in the following year as old cocks and 
hens with any hope of winning against sound-colored 
birds, for they will present too much of a washed out ap- 
pearance even when even in surface, and if the buff color 
was anywhere a little weak the first year it is likely to be 
more or less white after the molt. This shows most in the 
stiff feathers of wings and tail. It is among the birds 
that were a little dark in their first year that the best 
colored cocks and hens are to be found, but the reduction 
in intensity of pigment does not always give a better-col- 
ored bird. It may bring out the faults of color, especial- 
ly where the feathers are uneven in shade, through more 
reduction in one shade than in the other. Many buff 



a decided yellow cast; or the dark ones that are brown, 
rather than red. 

Parti-Colors with Buff, Bay or Red Ground 
In all varieties where the ground color is buff, bay, 
red or light brown, the behavior of this color is the same 
in fading as the behavior of buff. Usually the darker 
markings of brown in these patterns lose color in about 
the same degree, the result being a general and quite uni- 
form softening of the whole surface. Sometimes the .light 
color fades much more than the dark, giving rather harsh, 
contrasty effects. In all parti-colored patterns the gen- 
eral tendency is for light grounds to extend a little with 
each succeeding molt, and to become clearer, giving the 
general surface color of the bird an even lighter tone than 
would result from fading without any extension of the 
light areas. Perhaps the nicest illustrations of this are 
seen in the barred patterns — the Barred Plymouth Rock, 
Campine and Penciled Hamburg. In these, the widening 
of the white or bay bar by a hardly perceptible margin on 
either side, the dark bar being reduced in width to the 
same measure, makes quite a difference in the appearance 
of the bird. Whether the change is for better or worse 



40 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




COCKEREL HOUSE AT WILLOW TREE POULTRY FARM, BEVERLY FARMS, MASS. 



depends on how near the desired shade the color was orig- 
inally. 

In Blacks and Whites 

Plain white and black change less with age than any 
other colors. Old cocks in white varieties often show in- 
creasing tendency to brassiness year after year, but these 
are mostly birds of indifferent breeding that have not 
purity of color well established. The black flecks some- 
times present in young white birds become less trouble- 
some as the birds advance in years: many will completely 
disappear in the first annual molt. Under suitable condi- 
tions for growing good plumage, a bird that is good black 
in its first adult coat should be as good or better in after 
years, until age begins to brhig in white in the wings and 
tail. Some birds are as good as ever in color at three and 
four years. 

Where Undesirable White Appears First 

'In all color varieties the most accurate forerunner of 
weakness in color is the appearance of white at the base 
of the hackle, at the juncture of neck and back, and at the 
base of the main tail feathers, and at the base of primary 
wing feathers. The persistence of white in these sections 
appears to be a survival of an original natural tendency to 
white undercolor in dark birds. It is only since 1915 that 
the Standard did not contain provisions especially lenient 



to weakness here in so old and long-established a variety 
as the Brown Leghorn. The serious objection to it in 
' places where it is only seen by "digging into" the bird to 
look for it, is that it has a pronounced tendency to extend 
until it shows quite plainly. An otherwise good bird is 
not to be discarded for a little weakness in this point. If 
it has sufficient merit elsewhere it may win in spite of this 
weakness. But a bird that before its first annual molt be- 
gins to show white in the places mentioned is altogether 
unlikely to molt into a top-notcher. 

Birds do sometimes come better here the second year 
than the first, because they are in better condition or given 
better care and feed. These are exceptional cases. 

Whenever a breeder feels doubtful about a bird molting 
into good exhibition plumage, it is wise to give the bird the 
benefit of the doubt, and at the same time to give it the 
benefit of the best of conditions and care for the few 
months required to show just what it will do. It is es- 
pecially desirable to do this in the case of birds that he 
has reason to think did not develop as good plumage as 
they should in the first year. It is also well to bear in 
mind that everyone else has in some measure the same 
troubles in deciding what birds to keep over, and that it is 
always particularly difficult to get cocks in good show 
plumage as wanted. 




COLONY HOUSES IN YOUNG ORCHARD 
le place for either old or young exhibition 



CHAPTER VI 
General Care of Exhibition Stock in Summer 

Special Color Feeding — Cayenne and Carbonate of Iron — Scientific Observations on the Effects of Aniline and Other 
Dyes in the Feed — Some Effects of Common Feeds on Color — Effects of Heat on Growth of Feathers and on 

General Condition and Development — Effect of Lice on Development of Exhibition Stock Effects of 

Sun and Shade on Plumage — Relation of Character of Soil and Climate to Exhibition Quality 

General Sanitary Conditions 



THE points of greatest importance in the handling of 
exhibition stock have been mentioned, and to some 
extent discussed incidentally in considering matters 
relating to the attitude of the exhibit6r toward his birds, 
and the selection of the specimens giving most promise 
of winning quality. Many matters relating to the care 
and handling of exhibition birds are also treated more 
fully and in greater detail in books devoted especially to 
such matters a? housing, Breeding and feeding. It is 
presumed that the exhibitors, and prospective exhibitors, 
who read this book are sufficiently acquainted with special 
works on such subjects, to appreciate the necessity for 
limiting discussion of them in a book like this to the 
points in which the conditioning and fitting of exhibition 
stock involves the use of appliances and methods little 
used except by those who undertake to do all that can be 
done to make the birds they exhibit win. 

Special "Color Feeding" 
The writer has painstakingly read many an article — 
including some very long and elaborate treatises on the 
color feeding of exhibition birds — which at the outset pro- 
fessed to set forth the methods of obtaining color tones in 
plumage superior to those produced on birds fed only 
common poultry feeds, only to find that except as to the 
use of a very few articles long commonly used they had 
no specific information to give. Some of the most labored 
and pretentious articles by men professing a thorough 
knowledge of chemistry especially qualifying them as au- 
thorities on this subject are wholly speculative and sug- 
gestive and deal with theories not results. 



in this country did not tend to the extremes of cultivation 
of particular characteristics which in England led to ex- 
periments on this line; second, because the reports of re- 
sults, and the accounts of the methods used in that country 




WHITE WYANDOTTE HENS ON RANGE IN SUMMER 
Scene at Sabrina Farm, Wellesley, Mass. 

were not of a nature to stimulate interest in the practice 
among exhibitors here. 

The practice of color feeding to improve or intensify 
buff color would appear to have been suggested by the 
effects on the plumage of white and very pale yellow ca- 
naries of cayenne and iron fed for their tonic effects. 
Given in only the moderate quantities appropriate for that 
purpose they were observed to have some slight effects in 



staining plumage as well as in contributing to the finish 
The two special ingredients that have been quite ex- and luster. Heavier feeding of cayenne in particular gives 



tensively used are cayenne pepper and carbonate of iron. 
The effect of these is to (sometimes) intensify buff, bay 
and red shades. Carbonate of iron is also said to bring out 
more prominently the black flecks in plumage of these 
ground colors. Very little has been done or attempted 
in this line in America for two reasons: first, "the fancy" 




EARLY WHITE LEGHORN COCKERELS AT OWEN FARMS, VINEYARD HAVEN, MASS. 
Photographed in June 



some canaries very high color. According to Lewis 
Wright, the application of this method to poultry began 
about 1897 in England when a very rich, deep buff became 
fashionable in the showroom. Knowledge of the use of 
cayenne and iron to intensify the color of canaries then 
led a number of exhibitors of buff fowls to try feeding 
them to poultry. 

The results were admittedly far 
from uniform. Some birds would not 
respond to this kind of color feeding 
at all. In others the effects were visi- 
ble only in patches. In still others 
there appeared to be a deepening of 
the buff color which made winners of 
specimens which but for this treat- 
ment would have been too light in col- 
or to be considered. The extent to 
which it is successful and the extent 
to which it has been and is practiced 
are very much in doubt. How diffi- 
cult it is to get at the facts in such 
matters is shown by the situation at 
the present time in the United States 
in regard to the "processing" of red 
fowls to improve their color. 



4J 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



Basing the belief on a peculiar, unnatural appearance 
of some Rhode Island Reds of remarkably uniform color, 
and on the testimony of persons who claimed to recog- 
nize in certain "processed" birds specimens which natur- 




EARLIEST WHITE ROCK COCKERELS IN PERMANENT HOUSE AT OWEN FARMS 
The photograph shows only a few of the trees in the yard in foreground 

ally had neither the quality nor the uniformity of color 
they had when seen at certain exhibitions where they won, 
a considerable number of Rhode Island Red breeders are 
fully convinced that by one or more processes unknown to 
any save the few who devised and practiced them, the 
faults of red plumage can be remedied as effectually as 
creaminess is removed from white plumage by washing 
and bleaching. The presumption is that the change is 
made by some similar process. Further discussion of that 
is deferred to the proper place in a succeeding chapter. 
The point of interest here is the existing doubt both as to 
the nature of the process and the extent of its use. While 
some judges say that the peculiarity of the surface finish — 
the unnatural tone of color — led them to pass in certain 
cases birds which developments brought under suspicion 
of being processed, none pretend to be able by inspection 
of birds to determine whether they have been thus faked 
or not. No one except those- who use whatever process or 
processes are employed can say whether all specimens 
that undergo a process to improve their red color show an 
unnatural finish in the surface, or only those cases in 
which the operation did not give perfect results. 

With regard to color feeding the situation was pre- 
cisely the same when it first came into use; and since the 
process ceased to be a secret the un- 
certainty as to the extent of its use 
remains, though common-sense con- 
sideration of all aspects of the matter 
tends to the conclusion that it is of 
much less consequence and value than 
those who are looking for some secret 
as the clue to special excellence sup- 
pose is the case. 

The process and results of color 
feeding to improve buff color as given 
by Wright in "The Book of Poultry" 
1902 are: "Color feeding for enrich- 
ing buffs, if carried on at all, must be 
from the first beginning of the growth 
of the plumage to the very end of that 
growth, whether in chicks or molting 
adults. The regimen usually recom- 
mended is half a teaspoonful of cay- 
enne, of which the cool kind is just as 
good as the hot, given every day in the 



soft food, along with two grains carbonate, or three grains 
saccharated carbonate of iron. A little fat should also be 
mixed with the cayenne. Merely for enriching bays and 
crimsons, as in a Partridge Cochin cockerel, there can be 
nothing gained by anything more than 
saccharated carbonate of iron; plain 
carbonate is cheaper, but saccharated 
is more readily assimilated by the ani- 
mal system. On the other hand, there 
is some reason to think that iron may 
occasionally be injurious to a buff 
ird, in accentuating the slightest dif- 
ference of color. While a uniform col- 
or would probably be slightly deepen- 
ed in tone, any deeper patches, or the 
tendency to black specks, would prob- 
ably be brought into stronger relief by 
iron, while cayenne would be less like- 
ly to have this effect. * * However, if 
by careful breeding an even and rich 
buff has been produced, there is not the 
slightest reason to believe it will ever 
be surpassed by color feeding; the sole question is as to how 
nearly inferior color may be made to equal or approach it." 
Again Wright says in regard to the feeding of cayenne 
in particular: "In a long controversy upon the subject 
during 1S98, several large breeders of buff varieties, whose 
word there is no reason to doubt, stated that they had ex- 
perimented extensively, and given it up as yielding no re- 
sult. It is absolutely certain that no better buffs have 
been produced in general since 'feeding' was practiced 
than were bred before it was known; but, of course, this 
does not prove that their number has not been increased 
by specimens which would only have been inferior other- 
wise. Also in the earlier experiments alluded to cayenne 
alone was. used, whereas it is now believed that iron and 
some amount of fat are also advisable. Our own opinion 
is that in a certain number of cases there may probably 
be appreciable gain, but that it has been greatly exagger- 
ated. * * * Attentive scrutiny of buffs generally at 
exhibitions, since publication of the color feeding pro- 
cess, has led us to surmise that the more usual effect 
when marked (for in many birds none at all is admittedly 
produced) may probably be to deepen the color in local- 
ized patches rather than all over — in pullets usually at the 
sides of the breast and of the cushion near the tail, some- 




FAVORITE STYLE OF SUMMER COOP FOR GROWING 



chickens are cockerels of the second size on this farm i 
this and other photographs used here were taken 



STOCK AT OWEN FARMS 
June, when 



GENERAL CARE OF EXHIBITION STOCK IN SUMMER 



43 



times on the flat of the wing, the deepened color being a 
peculiar 'bricky' tint by no means attractive. It appears 
probable, however, that in individual cases color may be 
so gained without this patchy effect." 

In further discussion of the effects of color feeding, 
Wright cites the experiments of Dr. Sauermann as report- 
ed to the Vienna Ornithological Association, published in 
German in 1890, and afterwards translated into English 
and published in the "Feathered World." These were 
made first by feeding cayenne to White Leghorns, and 
then by feeding aniline dyes combined with oil to canar- 
ies. In the first case cayenne was fed to twelve White 
Leghorns, in what amount is not stated. The effects be- 
gan to show after eight or ten days, but only two out of 
the twelve birds were affected by it. In these there was 
some red color imparted to all soft feathers on the sur- 
face, but more on the hackle and breast than on the body, 
while the flights and tail remained white. The color ap- 
peared only on the surface where exposed to the light. 
The legs and feet were colored orange red. The same 
birds when fed cayenne in the next molting season became 
darker and more brownish where the color took effect. 
The yolks of their eggs were red, in 
some cases — it is said — bright blood 
red. Chickens hatched from the eggs 
showed no red in the down, but had 
some red in the first feathers. This 
faded out quickly if the chickens were 
not themselves fed with cayenne. All 
the 'chickens hatched from the two 
hens that absorbed the red color from 
cayenne inherited the capacity to do 
so. In this we can see how there 
would be a marked difference in the 
results obtained by color feeding by 
different breeders. Certain lines as 
well as certain individuals would re- 
spond to color feeding, and if a stock 
was predominantly of a line or lines 
that would do so, the beneficial effects 
might appear quite marked. Other- 
wise, so few individuals might be af- 
fected that there would be little if any- 
thing gained by the practice. 

'In feeding aniline dyes to canaries it was found that 
the effects lasted only for a short time. It appeared in 
this experiment that while the dye might have a desired 
effect to color the feathers, the oil combined with it 
seemed to check molting. When large quantities of cay- 
enne were fed to fowls the process of molting also seemed 
to be delayed. When instead of oil, albumen was com- 
bined with a few dyes, some striking results were obtain- 
ed. The dyes used were at first boiled with grain, but 
afterward it was found that the result could be obtained 
by mixing them in bread before baking and feeding the 
dyed bread. This is said to make the dyes so much less 
unpalatable that birds will readily eat the bread contain- 
ing them. Only two results are reported: Fawn-colored 
pigeons fed methyl eosin became red. Yellow Budgerigar9 
fed methyl violet became blue. 

About fifteen years after Sauermann's results were 
given to the public, Dr. Oscar Riddle of the University of 
Chicago, made some experiments in feeding a dye known 
as Sudan III to fowls. While these were made primarily 
for the purpose of following certain food elements through 
the processes of digestion and assimilation, some of the 



results observed are of value in connection with the sub- 
ject of color feeding to improve plumage. It should be 
kept in mind in considering these that the Sudan III 
has not a color that would give white or buff birds color 
a breeder would want. What effect it might have on dark- 
red birds is conjectural. Its use in the experiments of 
Riddle and others was simply to stain food elements in a 
manner that would make it possible to identify them in 
different parts of an animal organism. For the purpose of 
this experiment constant feeding of dye was not neces- 
sary. On the contrary, varying the length of the periods 
between doses, as well as the size of the dose, gave more 
definite observations as to a number of the effects. 

Among the interesting results noted was that the red 
dye stained the yolks of eggs that were growing rapidly 
for a time proportionate to the size of the dose. As long 
as the dye was available the new growth of the yolk would 
absorb it, but what yolk was formed before the dye was 
distributed through the system would remain yellow, and 
what grew after the supply in the system had all been 
absorbed in the tissues would also be yellow until a new 
supply of color became available. The result was alter- 




EARLT RHODE ISLAND RED COCKERELS AT OWEN FARMS IN JUNE 

These birds had to be "herded" into the small treeless corner of their large yard to be pho» 

tographed. No picture of them could be made in the shade they frequented most 

nate layers of red and yellow yolk. This shows clearly 
why in color feeding it is necessary to continue the pro- 
cess steadily through the whole period of the growth of 
the feathers, with the doses so close together that the 
system will always have a supply for the growing feath- 
ers. Failing that, parts of feathers would be of their na- 
tural color. 

The deposit of Sudan III in the body tissues was lim- 
ited to the fat. As Riddle puts it: "It seems certain that 
the dye is bound to the fatty constituents, cannot loosen 
from them, and is dragged with them mechanically, so to 
speak, wherever they may go." He points out that in 
fowls the fat in different parts of the body differs in its 
tendency to take the dye. This seems to accord with 
Wright's observation that the feathers in different parts 
of the fowl differed in their response to color feeding. 
Riddle does not mention the staining of the plumage of 
hens to which the dye was fed, but says that young 
chickens fed Sudan III while their feathers were growing 
became distinctly red. His failure to observe a like re- 
sult in mature fowls is readily explained by the apparent 
fact that it was not fed to them while molting. In tht- 



44 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




COOP FOR GROWING CHICKENS USED BY JOHN' S. MARTIN, 

PORT DOVER, ONTARIO 

View with front open 

experiments with this pigment it was found necessary to 
clean the floors of pens and brooders very often to prevent 
the staining of bills, feet and feathers, by contact with the 
pigment voided with the droppings. The bills and feet of 
the birds were very highly colored, but how much of the 
color was due to internal and how much to external ap- 
plications could not be determined. 

Of very great importance for its possible significance 
in other cases of color feeding is Riddle's observation that 
stained fat did not appear as available for reabsorption 
by fowls as the natural fat ,and that chicks fed this dye 
"ate much more than those not fed the stain; they seemed 
always hungry and did not grow as well as the other 
birds of the same age and breed." He adds: "This, of 
course, may easily have another explanation than the one 
suggested"; but bearing in mind observation of others 
that aniline dye interfered with the molt of canaries, and 
that cayenne in some cases interfered with the molt, it is 
reasonable to conclude that Riddle's explanation is correct. 
Sauermann is said to have found that the aniline dyes 
when pure were not poisonous. It would seem though 
that, properly qualified, the statement of his finding is that, 
if not adulterated, the dyes, in such quantities as he used 
them, were not violent poisons. Anything that taken into 
the system interferes with its normal functions is a poi- 
son in practical effects. 

On the whole, the cautious poultryman must conclude 
that whatever results attempts to dye the growing plumage 
by internal applications of more intense pigments than 
are found in the natural feeds of fowls may have toward 
the object of the practice, the possible bad effects are both 
too numerous and too serious to make it advisable to sub- 
ject valuable birds to such processes. Before leaving the 
subject it is in order to say something more of the value 
of testimony to the effect that color feeding was in cer- 
tain instances very successful. While poultry exhibitors 
as a class are quite willing to freely discuss all their prac- 
tices verbally among themselves and with all actively in- 
terested in matters relating to exhibiting, there are always 
some who, either from a natural secretiveness, or the de- 
sire to appear to have more knowledge of unusual matters 
than others, like to make it appear that their results are 
accomplished by methods known only to themselves. 
There is also a common, and perfectly natural, tendency 
to "string" competitors or reporters who go after informa- 
tion too precipitately — not having acquired the art of tak- 



ing it as it comes. On a bad day, when the attendance is 
light at a big show, and the exhibitors and regular attend- 
ants find things becoming too dull and monotonous, a 
gullible person who wants inside information can pick up 
from the banter of exhibitors and their friends a lot of mis- 
information about the extent of practices of this kind and 
the identity of those engaged in it. It is simply amazing 
how seriously some people take things of this kind that 
they hear, or happen to overhear. 

There are also occasional plain cases of an exhibitor, 
who is getting a little ahead of his competitors in his 
breeding, taking pleasure in letting them get the idea that 
his advantage lies in greater skill at some other phase of 
the production of exhibition birds, simply to divert their 
attention from their own breeding work — "keeping them 
guessing" about his methods of fitting, so that they will 
not apply their minds too intently either to learn what they 
can of his breeding, or to make experiments of their own 
which close observation of his birds might suggest. 
Some Effects of Common Feeds on Color 

In the use of regular feeds these points chiefly con- 
cern an exhibitor: the general effects of substantial ra- 
tions abundantly supplied; the effects of yellow corn on 
the color and finish of plumage; the influence of green 
feed; the results of feeding seeds especially rich in oil, or 
preparations of the oil from such seeds. 

One cannot study and compare many practices and 
statements of advocates of special feeding for exhibition 
fowls without coming to the conclusion that, as a rule, 
there is little occasion for these when the birds have, had 
the opportunity to make the best development they can 
upon good, substantial, ordinary feeds, under good living 
conditions. A comparison of American and English prac- 
tices, with particular note of the greater importance Eng- 
lish exhibitors appear to attach to the use of sunflower 
seeds, linseed-oil preparations, and the inclusion in special 
rations of articles which furnish more fat than the com- 
mon feeds, also suggests that the absence of corn from 
many rations in England is the prime cause of the occa- 
sion for an apparently much wider use of special feeds, 
stimulants, etc., in preparing birds for exhibition than ob- 
tains in America. It would appear further that a larger 
proportion of exhibitors in England grow birds under less 
favorable conditions than most of our exhibition birds get, 
and so would in any case have a larger proportion of spe- 
cimens that would need special treatment to bring them 
up. The most discriminate English writers on this sub- 




SAME COOP AS ABOVE, CLOSED FOR THE NIGHT 
Thorough ventilation and perfect security 



GENERAL CARE OE EXHIBITION STOCK IN SUMMER 



45 



ject are usually careful to caution their readers against 
more than a very moderate use of forcing and highly stim- 
ulating things for birds that are in good condition, observ- 
ing that with such high feeding often overreaches its 
purpose. 

The exhibitor should make it a rule to do all that can 
be done with ordinary feeds, good conditions and good 




TWO-COMPARTMENT COOP FOR COCKS 
Used at Owen Farms, A'ineyard Haven, Mass. 

care, before using any special feeds for special results. In 
general, corn is the principal grain used in American ra- 
tions. The tendency of the meal and cracked corn — es- 
pecially when made from/ soft corn — to heat and mold in 
warm weather makes it necessary for all poultry keepers 
to be careful about the quality of corn feeds they use, ana 
the grower of exhibition stock needs to use more care 
than those growing stock for other purposes, because he 
has more at stake in the development of each individual. 
When good, clean, bright corn cannot be obtained, the 
proportion of corn in a ration should be reduced, or pos- 
sibly it should be cut out entirely. The proper course 
must be determined by consideration of the quality of 
the corn to be obtained, of the conditions under which it 
is fed, and the results with the grains that might be sub- 
stituted for it. A slight inferiority in the quality of corn 
fed makes little difference to birds living under natural 
conditions with abundance of green feed and fresh ani- 
mal feed to make them resistant to the bad effects of the 
corn, but birds in bare yards, or in yards where the 
grass is so soiled that they do not eat it, and birds fed 
heavily of dried meat and bone by-products, are apt to 
be unfavorably affected by a steady diet of slightly 
moldy corn. 

On the other hand, good corn is not only usually our 
cheapest grain feed, but is the grain most relished by poul- 
try, and upon which they thrive best; and the writer ob- 
served long ago, and has repeatedly pointed out, that our 
best poultry keepers generally, in all lines, use corn much 
more liberally than the writers who reflect largely foreign 
ideas about the use of corn recommend. He has noted 
further that poultrymen's appreciation of the need and 
value of other articles of feed that provide fat is most 
marked where the use of corn is most limited. When 
good corn feeds are available the exhibitor may use all that 
the birds will eat with a relish and without getting over- 



fat; except that he must be careful about the use of yel- 
low corn he feeds. Birds differ in respect to the capacity to 
take pigment from corn, just as it has been shown that 
they do in susceptibility to the effects of cayenne and of 
dyes. Unless a poultry keeper knows that the color of the 
white stock he has is not affected by the amount of yel- 
low corn he feeds, it is wisest either to use white corn, or 
use a ration containing little or no corn, for birds he wish- 
es to exhibit; at the same time trying out some of the 
other specimens of the same breeding with yellow corn. 

In considering and testing the effects of yellow corn on 
white plumage, one must also bear in mind that birds on 
good pastures, where they eat large quantities of tender 
succulent green grass and weeds, get a great deal of yel- 
low color from these. Hence it will not infrequently hap- 
pen that white birds given yellow corn, but not much high- 
colored green feed, do not appear to have the color affect- 
ed by the corn, while those on range do. Conversely, when 
little or no yellow corn is fed, the coloring influence of the 
green feed may not be appreciable. 

For buff, red and all dark colors, the feeding of yel- 
low corn tends to give greater depth and lustre to the 
color. This may be further increased by using also sun- 
flower seed, hemp, linseed meal and oil, and cut bone and 
other animal feeds containing fat. With the exception of 
the meat and bone feeds the advantage of such things is 
not so marked with birds getting liberal supplies of corn 
that there will appear to be any real advantage in using 
them. There is no gain in excluding corn from a ration 
because of its fattening properties and then adding these 
usually higher priced fats to supply the deficiency. In us- 
ing meat feeds freely their tendency to give coarseness to 
comb and wattles, to add to the length and profusion of 
plumage, and also to increase the growth of frame in 




REAR VIEW OF COOP SHOWN ABOVE 
With hinged roof raised 

young birds, must be taken into consideration. This re- 
sult is desirable or objectionable according to tne char- 
acteristics of breeds, or of particular lines or individuals. 
Where fine, small, neat combs and wattles are required 
meat feeds must be used sparingly. Wherever their use 
can have no objectionable effect, they may be used as 
freely as in feeding for growth or for egg production. To 
grow a full coat of feathers free from all faults due to 
undernourishment of the feathers, the bird should have 



46 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




SUMMER COOP FOE EXHIBITION COCKS 
Used at Willow Tree Poultry Farm, Beverly Farms, Mass. 

some fat always in reserve throughout the whole period, 
thus insuring that all other feed elements are available for 
their specific purposes. 

Effect of Heat on Growth of Feathers and 
General Condition 

It has long and often been observed that earry-hatch- 
ed chickens which are growing their first adult coat of 
plumage in the summer rarely show the quality and finish 
of the later-hatched birds timed for the winter shows. The 
prime cause of this difference is in the fact that all the 
principal kinds of poultry are better adapted to cool cli- 
mates than to warm climates, and that all the functions of 
growth are in a measure checked by extreme hot weather. 
This may affect both the shape of a bird and the texture 
and quality of its feathers. The chick coming to matur- 
ity in hot weather tends to be rather coarse boned and 
weedy, and to grow a comparatively light coat of feathers. 
If the weather is variable, hot and cool spells alternating, 
and the breeder fails to keep the birds in the best possible 
appetite and condition by the careful use of green feed and 
milk, and milk by-products, the plumage will grow very 
unevenly, often showing faults corresponding to periods 
when the bird was off its feed and out of condition. 

To make the best development of which it is capable 
a chicken needs to have the last three months of its growth 
at a season when there is no weather hot enough to be at 
all uncomfortable for it. That is why our northern 
states produce so many more of the birds that win than 
the southern states. The southern breeder, and to some 
extent breeders everywhere that extreme hot weather may 
extend well into the fall, have much more to contend with 
in growing exhibition stock than those living where the 



summers are short, and hot weather rare after August. 
Effect of Lice on Development of Exhibition Stock 

Birds intended for exhibition should be kept wholly 
free from lice during the period of the growth of their 
plumage. On the not impossible theory that the boay par- 
asites of birds serve a useful purpose in stimulating the 
bird to take dust baths for the elimination of the lice, 
with the incidental result that the feathers are cleaned 
and scoured, a few lice on a fowl are not objectionable. 
Some lice are said to be beneficial also in consuming dead 
matter of skin and feathers. However that may be, it is 
easily apparent to those who examine birds for quality of 
plumage that lice are directly responsible for many faults 
in feathers. 

They damage them in two ways: by eating a part ot 
the web of the feather as it comes from the quill in the 
process of growth, and by so lowering the vitality of the 
fowls that both the growth and the pigmentation of feath- 
ers will show the effects. The direct damage is often seen 
in straight lines — about a thirty-second part of an inch in 
width — running in both directions from the quill across 
the web of the feather, and looking much as if something 
had scratched the web without disturbing its arrangement. 





EXHIBITION S. C. 



Roomy, airy house and large, grassy, shady yard 



ROW OF COOPS LIKE ABOVE ON NORTH SIDE OF LONG HOUSE 

Airiness of coop shows better here than in the other picture — 

you see right through them 

That is the first impression it gives one not familiar with 
the phenomenon and acquainted with the cause of it. A 
moment's consideration is all that is necessary to convince 
any discerning mind that the damage could not be caused 
after the web expanded, and was undoubtedly caused by 
injury as it was folded in the quill. Observation of the 
lines and of the fact that while not always the same dis- 
tance apart they are always parallel soon leads to the con- 
clusion that they are produced by lice, each line represent- 
ing a meal made of that feather. Nothing can be done to 
repair such damage. If it is limited 
to a few feathers the consequences are 
not serious, but too often toleration 
of lice results in so much of it that 
the plumage is badly marred. 

The indirect damage by lice pro- 
duces just the same effects as under- 
nourishment. Undesired white in the 
plumage of wings, tail and neck, is 
often due entirely to one or both of 
these causes. In that case a bird that 
as a cockerel or pullet had such faults, 
may — by good care — be made perfect- 
ly sound in color at its first annual 
molt. A breeder who knows the char- 
acteristic of his stock can tell pretty 
well what birds that showed faults 
due to these causes in their first year 



GENERAL CARE OF EXHIBITION STOCK IN SUMMER 



47 



may be expected to come right. in the following year with 
proper treatment. 

Effects of Sun and Shade on Plumage 
The ordinary changes which take place in a coat of 
feathers after it has grown are due partly to wear, but also 
conspicuously to the action of the sun and wind. All col- 
ors are in some measure affected by light and especially 
by constant exposure to strong sunlight. White birds that 
have been bred to a pure white are less affected by sun- 
light than any others. A few such birds can stand a great 
deal of sunlight without any marked deterioration of their 
pure white color. And in all colors we find a few birds 
strongly resistant to the effects of sunlight, but the num- 
ber is so small that general practice in handling birds to 
grow good-colored plumage can take no account of them. 
Provision must be made to protect birds that are growing 
the plumage in which it is desired to exhibit them from the 
sun as much as is necessary to insure that their color will 
be as good as it can be. Experienced breeders think it 
wise to give this protection to birds that have the least 
need of it, the sarnie as to the others, for though a "non- 
fading" bird may stand a lot of sun and still have better 
color than one that fades more easily has when given full 
protection from sunlight, it will not have its best color, 




LEGHORN CHICKS AT WILLOW TREE POULTRY FARM 

and may easily be beaten in the showroom by a bird not 
naturally quite so good in color, but at its best. 

Buff and red show the effects of sunlight most plainly 
on the solid-colored birds; but protection from sun is just 
as necessary to hold the full tone of ground color, and the 
richness of dark markings on all varieties of the black-red 
color patterns — Brown Leghorns, Partridge Cochins, Ply- 
mouth Rocks and Wyandottes, Dark Cornish, Golden 
Campines, Polish and Hamburgs, etc. Blue birds generally 
fade easily and rather unevenly. Some black birds fade 
badly, becoming when much exposed to the sun a dingy, 
reddish brown, which may not look near as bad as it is to 
an exhibitor whose birds all fade until he shows them De- 
side some good black specimens. In all the black-white 
varieties — the Dark Brahma, and all the silver laced, pen- 
ciled, spangled and barred color varieties, both the pur- 
ity of the white and the intensity of the black color are 
best preserved when the birds live much in the shade. 

Natural shade, or as it is sometimes called "green 
shade," is much better for exhibition stock than artificial 
shelters. Wherever it can be obtained it should be used. 
The advantages of natural shade are in the conditions thai 
go with it. The birds are outdoors, on grass or cultivated 
ground, and they get enough of the drip of dew and rain 
from the leaves over them materially to benefit the grow- 
ing feathers. The shade requirements for exhibition stock 
are on the whole no more than all poultry ought to have 




COOPS USED FOR R. C. 
P 

for comfort. The few exceptions to this general statement 
are where delicate colors like buff are best preserved if the 
birds are never allowed to remain in strong sunlight, ex- 
cept for occasional brief periods. 

As a rule, poultry having access to suitable growing 
shade will keep in it as much as is necessary to prevent 
the fading of plumage while growing. The shade that 
serves this purpose however, is not a limited shaded 
space with perhaps just enough room for all the birds to 
get under cover when they have nothing else to do and 
no place else to go except to a house not particularly com- 
fortable on a warm day 

The shade that meets the requirements is the shade of 
a roomy yard with one or more fair-sized trees giving 
ample shade in some part of it at any time of day; or the 
shade of an orchard or a wooded lot, or a cornfield or 
raspberry patch. There must be room in the shade for 
the birds to live and something more than just the shade 
to attract them to it. Many exhibitors plant corn or sun- 
flowers in their yards so that practically the whole yard 
is shaded. Many who have not time or inclination to cul- 
tivate the yards allow them to grow tall weeds which make 
splendid shade, though they may give the place a rather 
unkempt look. 

Where artificial shade must be provided it is a good 
plan to use coops with wire sides all around, so that the cir- 
culation of air is always good. Shades of a single thickness 
of burlap or cotton cloth over open spaces are often used. 
The sufficiency of these depends on the circumstances. 
Sometimes a yard is so located that it gets natural 
shade, or the shade of a building a part of the day, and the 
artificial shade is needed for only a short time on bright 
days. Late in the season when the sun's rays have lost 
much of their strength such shade may be sufficient. But 




A GOOD COLONY COOP FOR EITHER YOUNG OR OLD BIRDS 



48 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



for ample protection against strong sunlight something 
more substantial is needed. Where it can be obtained a 
piece of old sail or tent cloth of medium to heavy weight 
will answer, especially if it is of good size. For shade 
alone it is not essential that a roof or cover be waterprooi. 
In fact, until it gets cool in the fall, a chicken coop with 
plenty of cracks in the sides and a leaky roof is more the 
ideal place for poultry than the substantial wind and water- 
tight structure necessary for the comfort of most breeds 
in winter. Old boards, not worth using for any other 
purpose, can often be made to serve purposes of shade for 
several years by nailing them on light supports. 

'Even with such special provision for shade it is a 
good plan to make the roosting quarters as comfortable as 
possible on hot days, and where it is practical to do so 
to use space under a poultry house for a shady loafing 
place for the birds. It is quite the common thing through- 
out all our northern states to find poultry houses built es- 
pecially to suit winter conditions and not admitting venti- 
lation enough in extreme hot weather. Nearly all the per- 
manent poultry houses in the North would be better suin- 



The advantage of this depends upon the houses and sheds 
being roomy and comfortable, and light enough for the 
birds to see well anywhere in them when the sun is ex- 
cluded by curtains or awnings. As shading to produce the 
desired results must be carried on through about three 
months birds kept indoors for the most of the time must 
be made very comfortable, and all their wants fully pro- 
vided for, or loss of condition in other ways may more 
than offset the improvement in color. Keeping birds in 
the shades also helps the color of white ear lobes which 
generally tan more or less, even on the most naturally 
white, if too much exposed to sun and wind. Much ex- 
posure to wind also has the effect of roughening the sur- 
face of the ear lobe. 

While the effects of wind on the plumage are not usu- 
ally of much consequence, exhibition stock should not be 
kept in exposed wind-swept situations unless amply pro- 
vided with shelters and windbreaks. Young chickens 
in particular, will fail of their best development if they 
have constantly to battle with the wind. The natural home 
of the fowl is in and near thickets where the wind usually 




J. V. MK'OXXELL'S COCKEREL HOUSE. GARDEN GROVE, CALIF. 



mer houses if built so that a considerable part of the back 
■ — enough to give very good circulation of air through the 
house at any time — could be opened in the summer as a 
large proportion of the good poultry houses in the South, 
where they must provide for long periods of hot weather, 
are. Space under a house is oftenest available when col- 
ony coops are used, which can easily be raised a foot or 
more from the ground. This makes a much cooler spot 
than the space under a single thickness of wood or otner 
material. 

Breeders of buff birds in particular, who wish to insure 
that the plumage of the birds is not in the least affected 
by exposure to the sun, make a practice of keeping the 
birds in their houses or in open-front sheds, except for a 
little while each morning and evening, and on cloudy days. 



has little sweep and force, and though birds kept for utility 
purposes may adapt themselves to rough conditions of life, 
•such conditions are not favorable to the finish in form and 
feather desired in an exhibition fowl. With reasonable 
protection from the elements, exhibition birds should not 
be coddled. The idea is to have them live as natural a 
life as is consistent with protection from accidents or 
conditions that would mar their perfection. ■ 

Character of Soil and Exhibition Form 
Birds that are kept on dry porous soils — even when 
these bear some vegetation — do not, as a rule, have the 
smooth surface and good color of shanks and feet which 
appear so attractive in birds on grass and on moderately 
moist or even wet land. Alkali soils are especially baa 
for the feet, absorbing much of the oil from the skin. 



GENERAL CARE OF EXHIBITION STOCK IN SUMMER 



49 



Birds differ greatly in ability to keep good condition of 
the shanks and feet under unfavorable circumstances, but 
few retain really good color and surface in very dry 
places, or when constantly on dry floors and in yards con- 
taining much coal ashes. 

The damage caused by too much contact with dry 
earth, ashes and the like, is not irreparable. External 
applications of oil will greatly improve their condition 
and appearance, but the legs that have to be so treated 
never have the natural finish. This may not be a se- 
rious disadvantage in competition. In local shows, where 
practically all the local birds are on a parity in this re- 
spect, a bird from outside that is good in shanks and 
feet will have no advantage on that account except in 
close decisions. But in sending a bird that is poor in 
color and condition of shanks and feet to a large show, 
where most of the birds exhibited are good in that sec- 
tion, an exhibitor will often find that, unless it has out- 
standing merit somewhere else to catch attention, its lack 
of color in shanks and feet so detracts from its appearance 
in a class generally good there that the judge is pre- 
possessed against it at first sight. 

Fine condition of the shanks and feet is a matter 
of prime importance entirely apart from appearances. 
When the skin is allowed to become dry the scaly leg mite 
establishes itself much more easily under the scales which 
are then slightly loose. Also, dirt of all kinds works 
farther under the scales and is more difficult to remove. 
Poultry keepers generally, unless the point has been 
especially brought to their attention, do not realize that 
the scales on the shanks of fowls are modified feathers, 
and are normally molted like feathers. In many cases 
they do not molt — as seems apparent by the fact that a 
rough scaly shank does not have smooth new scales at 
the end of the molt. The reason for the failure to shed 
the old scales and grow new ones would appear to be 
that the condition of the shank — and perhaps also the 
drain on the juices in it made by the mites — interferes 
with the processes. 

There ought not to be any scaly leg among exhibition 
stock but, if there is, the time to begin systematic .work 
to eradicate it is before the birds begin to grow the feath- 
ers in which they are to be shown. Where there is much 
of it on the premises and the young chickens become in- 
fected early, traces of roughness will begin to show at the 
junction of the foot and shank by the time they are three 
or four months old. For both chicks and old birds or- 
dinary cases of scaly leg are easily cured by simply dip- 
ping the legs to the hock in a mixture of raw linseed oil 
and kerosene, using equal parts of these ingredients for 
ordinary cases, less kerosene for very mild cases, and 
more for severe cases, and repeating the application at 
intervals of a week or so as long as seems necessary. 
When done before the new plumage grows it is not nec- 
essary to take pains to prevent the oil from coming in 
contact with the feathers at and above the hock. What 
little may get on them will not give the birds any par- 
ticular discomfort and the feathers will soon be shed. 

General Sanitary Conditions 

The coops, houses and yards, into which growing and 
molting exhibition stock go, should be in good sanitary 
condition at the beginning of their several months' occu- 
pation for this special purpose. Most breeders are careful 
to have them so for birds that are to be shown in winter, 



because unless the renovation before the birds go in is 
thorough there is little chance of its being done at all until 
the next spring. Many exhibitors, however, are inclined 
to give very indifferent attention to the matter of 
providing thoroughly clean quarters for lots of birds that 
will come out of them before winter, thus giving the 
opportunity for a complete overhauling at that time. Care- 
lessness of this kind is much more likely to affect old birds 
and young in permanent yards than young birds colonized 
on the range, for the coops of the latter are generally well 
cleaned before the birds go into them, and are either placed 
on fresh ground or remain on ground which has had no 
poultry in the early part of the season. 

Where the birds are in permanent houses and yards 
the most thorough clean-up of the year should be made 
at this time. If the houses have wood or cement floors 
they should be made as clean as shovel and broom can 
make them. Where the floors are of earth what is 
plainly mixed droppings should be removed and new 
earth or sand put in. If there is going to be opportunity 
to clean up again before winter, it may be as well not 
to put in more new earth or sand than is needed to give 
good conditions at this time. Then with removal of the 
droppings and the filling of the floor to the desired 
level, the floor is in good condition for the birds that 
use the house through the winter. 

The ceiling, or underside of the roof — as the case may 
be — and the walls should be brushed down, all movable 
nests and roosts-parts having first been removed; and 
if the house is old, or has been at any time infested 
with parasites, the whole interior should be sprayed with 
a suitable disinfectant. The floor of cement or wood 
should be thoroughly disinfected, and special attention 
should be given to saturating any cracks or joints about 
roosts and nests that have harbored mites or could do so. 

After the floor has had time to dry out thoroughly 
an inch or two of dry sand or loam should be spread 
over it, and over this a litter of clean straw, hay or leaves, 
if these are available. The advantage of these materials 
over shavings and other short, fine material is that when 
not broken up so fine that they pack their light contact 
with the plumage helps to polish the feathers and also to 
keep them clean. To get this benefit the litter must be 
reasonably fresh, loose, and deep enough so that the 
birds working in it are nearly half buried. Many exhib- 
itors use deep litter only in the few weeks of special 
preparation just before showing, and many do not use 
it at all. Practice is determined largely by what is avail- 
able, and by the ordinary practice of a poultry keeper 
in the use of litter throughout the year. 

Yards and runs that are to be used for exhibition 
stock, and that are not in grass, should be freshened 
up as much as possible. It is a good plan, wherever 
practical, to have such land turned over early in the 
spring, and planted to a crop that will make either shade 
or green feed for the birds when they are put on it. Small 
yards, or any land where the droppings are seen accum- 
ulated on the surface, should have what can be taken up 
removed before the soil is turned over. Growing 
crops of itself does not sufficiently purify land that carries 
considerable poultry every season. If the droppings re- 
main on the land and are turned under no deeper than 
the ordinary spading, forking or plowing of poultry yards 
puts them, several seasons of crop growing may be nec- 
essary to purify the soil. 



CHAPTER VII 



Preliminary Work in Fitting Exhibition Birds 

Gentleness in Catching Poultry — The Right Way to Catch a Fowl — How to Catch Turkeys and Waterfowl — How 

to Hold Birds for Inspection — Taking Birds from Coops — Returning Birds to Coops — Penning Birds in Small 

Space to Catch — Supervising the Molt — Partial Molting — When Premature Molting Is an Advantage — 

When to Remove Unmolted and Damaged Feathers — The Humane Way to Pull Feathers 



THE practices and points discussed in the last chapter 
generally relate either to things which a poultry 
keeper can see without handling the bird and closely 
examining it, or to things that come up in poultry practice 
in other connections as well as in the special consideration 
of exhibition birds. We cannot draw clear lines between 
the practices of exhibitors and of others, and sometimes 
convenience dictates consideration of matters of peculiar 
interest to exhibitors with equal interest to the breeder 
whether he exhibits or not. Again it may seem preferable 
to emphasize a matter that ought to be of common interest 
by treating it in a sense of special interest to exhibitors. 
Gentleness in Catching Poultry 
Such a matter is the method of catching and handling 
exhibition poultry. All poultry ought to be handled 
just as carefully, but the penalties of mishandling speci- 
mens of only ordinary market value are usually in each 
case so light that the consequences are not brought home 
to the offender as they are when rough treatment either 
seriously injures an exhibition bird or so impairs its con- 
fidence in men that it will never show to good advantage. 
In counseling gentle handling under all conditions, : I am 
not unmindful of the fact that some birds do not respond 
at all to the most gentle, skillful and persistent efforts to 
train them to allow themselves to be caught readily, and to 
stand and pose as the person handling them wishes. Many 
specimens that have exhibition quality never make good 
show birds for this very reason. As stated elsewhere, 
submission to handling and posing tends to become second 
nature with birds descended from long lines of prize- 
winning ancestors. But even with these the response to 
the advances of the person handling them is- influenced 
very much by his attitude and method. Only the most 
docile birds become submissive under handling that makes 
them uncomfortable or injures them. 



The three points to be kept in mind especially, when 
catching exhibition birds, are "USE NO HOOKS;" take 
your time; and, handle only one bird at a time. 

The long wire hook much favored for catching fowls 
should be absolutely prohibited from the premises where 
exhibition stock is kept. It has been for some years a 
question in my mind whether the hook ought not to be 
barred from all poultry yards, for the reason that the use 
of it seems to be always accompanied by the abuse of it. 
Still there are occasions when it is a great convenience 
and the damage it may do has no serious consequences 
because the injured bird is destined to be killed shortly. 
But with exhibition stock the use of the hook is so entirely 
out of place that there is no room for an argument for its 
use in emergencies. The objection to the hook is that even 
with the greatest care, and when the wire is wrapped with 
soft material where it comes in contact with the shank 
of the bird, many birds have shanks badly bruised, or 
the leg strained at the hock or hip. 

The Right Way to Catch a Fowl 

One should not attempt to catch a bird until he has it 
where he knows that it cannot get away from him, and 
where with a little patience he can maneuver it into a 
position where he can take hold of it securely without 
danger of twisting a leg, or loosening a lot of feathers. 
In pens and coops up to about twenty feet square birds 
can easily be driven into a corner. Then by advancing 
straight toward the corner, stooping a little, and with 
hands outstretched to stop the bird if it tries to run out 
at either side, advancing cautiously and quietly, one can 
get close enough to touch the bird. From the time one 
starts to catch the bird he should keep his eye on it, and 
be ready with a movement of the hand to turn it back 
as it starts to one side, and as quickly to sign with the 
other hand when it tries, as it usually will, to make a 




TO CATCH A BIRD IN 



PRELIMINARY WORK IN FITTING EXHIBITION BIRDS 



51 



break in the opposite direction. After being turned and 
checked a few times, and finding the pursuer always has his 
eye fixed on it and is coming nearer, the bird of ordinary 
natural docility will stand still and wait developments. 

Now an expert in handling birds will simply advance 




AND MOVING BIRDS 



one hand until it touches or almost touches the bird on 
one side, the hand being open with palm toward the side 
of the bird and the movement directed with the idea of 
holding the wing close to the side when the other hand 
advances the fraction of a second later from the other 
side. In this way the bird is caught and held firmly be- 
tween the two hands, its head being toward the catcher. 
Now by quietly and easily slipping one hand down and 
under the bird, slipping one finger between the legs and so 
grasping them both just above the hocks, the bird is held 
so that it is secure and realizes that struggles are use- 
less, and at the same time being comfortable is not 
alarmed and disposed to struggle to free itself. 

The point in catching a bird in this way is to hold its 
attention and anticipate its every move until it realizes 
that it is cornered, and then to handle it so gently yet 
firmly that it has no occasion to feel frightened. In 
general, a bird that is cornered keeps its head toward the 
person trying to catch it. Often as a bird moves about 
the floor or between corners if it slips past the catcher's 
guard, one has a chance to catch it as it is going from 
him, in the same manner as described — that is, between 
the hands. The surest way in such cases is to advance 
one hand over the bird's back and a little forward, with 
the thumb turned toward you, instead of out, and at the in- 
stant of touching the bird wheel it about so that it faces 
you, and just as it comes around bring the other hand into 
play and catch it as previously described. With a little 
practice it is much easier to do this than to catch the bird 
wrong end first and then turn it in the hands to get proper 
hold. 

After a bird has been caught and handled a number 
of times it is often easy to catch between the hands 
from any position when the catcher is near enough to 
touch it, but comparatively few birds will submit to 
capture without making the pursuer do a little work. 
Poultry are just like cows and horses in this, and some 
of the most docile seem to enjoy dodging capture when 
they have the opportunity to do so. 

After one becomes accustomed to catching and hand- 
ling birds there are other methods that may be employed 
when the bird is in a position that admits of using them 
to better advantage than catching between the hands. 
Thus one may have a bird in such a position that it is 



easier to get hold of it by the legs in much the same 
position as when the bird is held in the hand; or he may 
be able to catch it by the wings, close up .to the shoulder. 
A novice in either of these holds is very apt to pull 
feathers out. One who becomes somewhat expert in them, 
or either of them, not only is surer of 
getting a quick firm hold, but knows 
by the sense of touch at the instant 
of contact with the bird whether he 
has such a hold, and if he has not 
does not tighten his grip, but lets 
the bird slip away, and trys again. 

After handling certain birds a 
number of times and getting an 
idea what they will do one may 
sometimes with very little risk take 
liberties in the way of holds that 
would bring disastrous results with 
a frightened bird. Thus a bird that 
is well broken to handling, but likes 
to play its master, may be caught 
by the tail, or even by a handful of 
soft feathers without pulling any of them out, if the man 
and the bird understand each other. I have seen a bird 
caught by the neck submit gracefully, though a bird not 
used to handling may injure himself or his captor by strug- 
gling if the latter does not quickly let so insecure a hold go. 
One who has little experience or skill in handling 
birds without injuring them, and particularly without 
loosening feathers, is often deceived when he sees an 
expert handling them by the apparent roughness of some 
of the latter's movements. I would not say that all persons 
who have handled many exhibition fowls are not rough 
when they appear so. I have known men who exhibited 
for years and never learned to handle birds right. They 
were rough even in their application of right methods. 
But the greater number of seasoned exhibitors rarely do 
anything that injures a bird because even in their most 
strenuous efforts to catch a bird they always have vividly 
before their minds the necessity of catching it without do- 
ing any damage. I have seen a breeder (probably with 
some foot-ball experience) "fall on" a bird that instead 
of trying to slip past him at one side made a dive forward 




JOHN S. MARTIN'S CARRYING COOP 
under his guard, and come -up with a proper hold and 
scarcely a feather on the bird ruffled. 

How to Catch Turkeys and Waterfowl 

Turkeys are caught and handled as fowls are but 
with the difference that in catching large birds it is a 
matter of using the whole arm, not merely the hand. In 



52 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



handling ducks and geese it is often easiest to catch the 
bird by the neck near the head, and then as quickly as 
possible a body or leg hold. The necks of these water- 
fowl are so strong that it does not hurt the smaller birds 
to be carried by the neck, though the heaviest birds seem 
to be a little inconvenienced by that treament — even if 
not actually injured. Ducks .should never be caught 
by the feet for their legs are very tender and easily 
broken. Geese have stronger legs than ducks, yet it is 
not a good plan to catch those that may struggle by a 
leg. In holding waterfowl in the hand the shortness of the 




A GOOD STYLE OP SHIPPING COOP 
Very handy in sorting and moving birds 

thighs, and the width between them is so great that one 

cannot get a firm hold of both legs instantly as he may 

with chickens, and often has to use both hands to adjust 

the legs so that they can be firmly held in one. 

How to Hold Birds for Inspection 

A small, light bird can be held in one hand while 
being examined. When the weight of a bird is such as 
to tire the hand, or when constant handling of medium 
and light birds tires the hand and arm, one handling and 
examining birds either sits down and holds the bird in his 
lap, or stands with one foot on a box or chair, or per- 
haps on the edge of the platform on which low coops 
stand at a show, with his arm and the weight of the bird 
resting on his knee. The bird held by the legs as described 
can be examined all over, turned in any desired position, 
and passed from hand to hand as desired, so that which- 
ever hand is most convenient may be used in open- 
ing the wings or parting the feathers. An excitable 
bird will sometimes struggle a little, and is more apt to do 
so if the grip in which it is held is unsteady — alternately 
tight and relaxed. 

Taking Birds from Coops 

In taking birds from an exhibition coop the best 
way is to turn the bird facing you, then slip the hand un- 
der it and secure the hold on both thighs well down to- 
ward the hock; then with the weight of the bird resting 
on the hand and wrist draw it gently toward you and 
through the door of the coop. A bird that is broken to 



handle well will submit to this readily. An ill-broken or 
shy bird will often crowd into the corner of the coop, 
or may fly and strike the top of it. In the first case a 
little coaxing will usually get a bird in position where he 
can be properly caught; but if a bird is stubborn it may 
be necessary to get both hands in the coop, using one to 
bring him in position where the other can catch and hold 
him securely. Also in case of a very large bird, or one 
that spreads its wings, both hands must be used. The 
person handling must use judgment and while in a gener- 
al way proceeding as described must always keep cool, 
keep his wits about him, and remember that the all- 
important part of the process is to do what is necessary 
with the bird without injuring it or its plumage. 

Returning Birds to Coops 

In returning a bird to an exhibition coop it is usually 
passed in head foremost. The method of holding it 
while doing this will depend somewhat on the bird. In 
some instances if a person holding the bird will turn it 
a little on his arm and stand in such a position that it is 
just before and facing the door of the coop, it may sim- 
ply be released and then will step quietly into the coop. 
Others it is necessary to take between the hands with the 
head away from the person holding, and pass through 
the opening and let them feel their footing on the coop 
floor before releasing them. 

In handling birds it is sometimes convenient and 
sometimes necessary to put them in and take them from 
coops having the opening in the top, as the ordinary 
shipping coops and carrying coops have. In all cases, the 
opening should be large enough to admit of easy passage 
of the bird, when held between the hands. 

Penning Birds in Small Space to Catch 

What has been said so far applies to the catching of 
one bird or a few birds from a flock, and to their handling 
in a leisurely way for inspection, etc. It often is necessary 
to go over the birds in a pen, or to move a lot to new 
quarters. Wherever many fowls are kept much such work 
must be done by daylight, and arrangements should be 
made so the birds can be caught and handled easily. 

In the ordinary small colony house as used for grow- 
ing chickens the person catching them can often pick 
them up one by one as they crowd to one end of the coop. 
In wider coops, where the birds have the opportunity 
to dodge to either side of him, the best plan is to have 
a wire-covered frame six or eight feet long and frnm two 
and a half to four feet wide, according to length or to 
the kind of fowls to be caught, which can be put across 
a corner of the pen to keep fowls in it while being caught. 
A person working alone should have a small panel so 
that standing in front of it, or standing astride of it, he 
can easily reach any bird in the space it encloses. Then 
with the coop in which the birds are to be put con- 
veniently beside him, he can catch the birds leisurely and 
without exciting them. 

When there are two or more persons at the work a 
higher and longer panel may be used and the person 
catching can pass the birds as caught to one outside. 
The work should always be done deliberately. No more 
birds should be cornered at one time than can crowd into 
the corner, as they usually do at the first moment, with- 
out some being trampled. The more birds there are in 
a group the greater the tendency to crowd and stampede. 
The first lot of birds cornered usually shows most ex- 
citement. As the work proceeds and the birds become 
accustomed to the movements of those at work they 



PRELIMINARY WORK IN FITTING EXHIBITION BIRDS 



53 



take the proceedings in a matter-of-fact way. Some 
poultrymen use a box or coop into which the birds are 
driven until the coop is full. Where there is room to 
handle such a coop and two or more men are working to- 
gether it may work very well, but in general a panel is 
more conveniently handled and more satisfactory. 

In all the work of catching, handling and moving 
birds they should be handled carefully, one by one. As 
a person has two hands, he may hold 
or carry two birds — if the birds are 
small enough to be held securely with 
one hand — but that is as far as he 
should go. Trying to carry as many 
birds as can be carried by the legs 
down, and some by only one leg, is a 
practice that ought never to be used 
with high-class stock. Either a coop 
should be provided for carrying or the 
person moving the birds should take 
one or two (according to whether the 
birds can be absolutely controlled with 
one hand if they struggle) at a time. 
Supervising the Molt 

In discussing the effects of "color 
feeding" mention was made of the fact 
that in many instances it appeared 
that the use of such ingredients interfered with normal 
molting. Extended observations on conditions associ- 
ating with molting and with failure to molt normally or 
completely have never been made at all systematically. 
The most thorough study of the subject of molting we 
have was made at Cornell University Experiment Station 



some years ago, at a time when forcing the molting of 
hens by "starving," feeding very light for several weeks, 
and then following with a period of very heavy feeding of 
rich rations, was being widely recommended as a means 
of getting old hens to lay at the season when eggs are 
most scarce — in the late fall and early winter. Many 
reports had been published by individual poultrymen 
claiming to have been perfectly successful in efforts to 





INTERIOR OP A LONG COCKEREL HOUSE 



COCKEREL HOUSE OF L. J. DEMBERGER, STEWARTS VILLE, IND. 



control the molt in this way. Others had tried it with- 
out apparent results. The experiment did not show uni- 
form results, nor any final advantage in measures to 
hasten the molt of laying hens. In connection with it, 
however, a number of observations on the growth of 
feathers were made which are of considerable interest 
to exhibitors, giving more definitely various facts which 
old exhibitors knew in a general way, but not so fully 
as to details and the time required for the growth of 
feathers. 

In the Cornell experiments an effort was made to 
stain the first feathers that appeared on any part of the 
body, and when these dropped out to stain with another 
color those that succeeded them. The first set of feath- 
ers were stained red, those that followed them black. 
The red-stained feathers in the wings and tails of White 
Leghorn chicks had all disappeared, molted out, by the 
time the chicks were eight weeks old. At thirteen weeks 
the black-stained feathers which succeeded them had 
all been molted and white feathers, which were allowed 
to remain unstained, were growing in their places. From 
about thirteen weeks to between five and six months no 
feathers were molted out. Then the feathers were all 
gradually shed and the first mature plumage grown. 
Hence, it appears that a bird in its first year grows in 
succession four coats of feathers. 

It was observed that in general the oldest feathers 
molted first, the rotation in the molt following closely the 
rotation of the appearance of the first feathers 
on the chick, except that in growing the first 
adult coat of feathers the stiff wing and tail feathers, 
which in the earlier coats were grown first, were in this 
coat grown last. 

This peculiar fact explains why so often young 
birds, particularly pullets, that seem to have quite com- 
pleted their molt as far as the body plumage is concerned, 
are often found to have the chick feathers still in the 
wings and tail. If these are bright, clean and good in 
color birds are sometimes shown with them in, especially 
if it happens that the situation is not discovered until 
so near the date of showing that it is not possible for 



54 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




V Irtri iiAriiin 



heavy egg production. The statement is made that "When 
fowls molt naturally and well, one should scarcely be 
able to notice that the flock is molting, except that the 
shed feathers are found in large quantities about the place.". 
Whatever attitude the breeder for heavy egg pro- 
duction may take in regard to the advisability of prolong- 
ing laying as long as possible with the result that the hens 
are made "late mol- 
ters," the breeder 
of exhibition fowls 
is interested first of 
all in having his 
birds lead a nor- 
mal life with all 
functions operating 
normally and sea- 
sonably. With re- 
spect to molting, 
as in the matter of 
feeding, the wise 
general policy is to 
use special methods 
only in emergen- 
cies — and by pro- 
per forethought to 
avoid emergencies. 
As will appear in 
many instances to 
be cited in succeed- 
ing chapters, most 
special processes 
are more or less 
uncertain (in the 
nature of chances) 
and of temporary 
effect — and, some- 
times, undesirable 

after-effects. An exhibitor who has a large stock of high 
exhibition quality from which to select usually has year- 
lings and older birds beginning to 
molt all the time from the beginning 
of summer till very near winter, with 
the average normal bird beginning 
to molt about midsummer, and hav- 
ing the plumage full grown about 
the first of November. . 
Partial Molting 
Any change in the life of the 
fowl at the beginning of summer, 
about the time when breeding pens 
are usually broken up, and the exhi- 
bition quality birds that are to be 
kept over are given new conditions 
of life — most often good range in a 
large flock — seems to stimulate fur- 
ther egg production, or to check pr6- 
duction and start molting, according 
to the tendency of the individual, or 
perhaps also according to its condi- 
tion. It is not possible to say in ad- 
vance how hens approaching their 
first annual molt will be affected, but 
after a bird has been seen through 
one molt the person attending it 
knows about what to expect of it in 
any subsequent year. The birds that 
ONE WAY OF ARRANGING EXHIBITION COOPS FOR CONDITIONING BIRDS start molting in June and early July 



the new ones to grow out in time if these are removed. 
There is always the possibility at this stage that the feath- 
ers may drop out without assistance, leaving the appear- 
ance of the bird more or less marred. However, there 
will be little trouble on that score if the exhibitor takes 
the precautions shortly to be described. 

In -cockerels the "furnishings" — that is the decorative 
male feathers — usually finish last and the cockerel is from 
one to two months later (according to breed development) 
than his sisters in completing the growth of his first 
adult plumage, so the tail and wing feathers are not 
so likely to remain unmolted when the bird seems other- 
wise fit to show. The time required to grow this first 
adult plumage is about three months, but it appears to 
vary considerably in individuals, as also does the time of 
the first annual and later annual molts. No definite 
observations on the time of growing the first adult coat 
have been made. We only know that it is approximately 
three months, which brings the age at which fowls are 
ready to show in full adult (first) plumage at from eight 
to ten or eleven months, according to rate of growth and 
size and sex. 

In the Cornell experiment it was found that the aver- 
age time required by 215 White Leghorn hens to molt and 
grow a new coat of feathers was 95 days. But this was 
for flocks containing hens up to their fourth year. The 
average time for the yearling hens was 82 days, for 
the two-year-olds, 101 days, and for the three-year-olds, 
104 days. The report states that there is "a wide vari- 
ation in the length of time it requires individuals to 
complete the molt," but does give an average for a lot 
of about forty hens at 65.5 days. From this it would 
appear that the common observation of exhibitors that 
hens frequently made a complete molt in six weeks or 
a little over is borne out by the experiment. It was 
found further that the latest molting hens usually molted 
the fastest. No positive conclusion was drawn from this 
observation, for the late molt appeared to be in a sense 
an abnormal result of the success of attempts to get 




FRONT OF COOPS IN COCKEREL HOUSE 
Feed and water cups outside 




PRELIMINARY WORK IN FITTING EXHIBITION BIRDS 




1 — First position — one hand on bird 



5 — Ready to return to coop 




2 — Taking the bird between thp hnnrts 



6 — Turned on side to pass into coop 




4 — Left hand shifted to hold legs at hocks 



JOHN S. MARTIN DEMONSTRATING METHOD OP TAKING BIRD FROM AND RETURNING TO COOP WITH HEAD 

TOWAKD HANDLER 



56 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



will 'be in fair feather for the fairs in the last of August 
and September. 

Many hens that have been allowed to incubate late 
in the spring, whether they run with chicks after hatch- 
ing them or not, will then begin to molt. To superficial 
and never critical observation these birds may appear to 
make a complete molt, yet it is doubtful that many of 
them do so, and the common observation that hens that 
molted early in the summer often go through a partial 
molt again in the fall is probably due to failure to note 
that the first molt is incomplete, and what appears as a 
second partial molt is in reality the renewal of the feathers 
not molted earlier. Not only is there this somewhat con- 
spicuous division of the molt in the early molters, but 
many later molting hens do the same thing, as far as the 
incompleteness of the main molt goes, and may either 
complete this molt in winter or carry the old feathers 
until the next annual molt. Besides the occasional un- 
molted old feathers scattered through the soft plumage, 
large patches or sections of the plumage may be re- 
tained when the greater part is molted. 

When Premature Molting Is an Advantage 

While it is possible that in any case an early molt 
might be started by an abrupt change in the life of the 
bird, the only case where there seems to be any real ad- 
vantage to an exhibitor in a premature molt is when it 
is of prime importance to him to win at a fall show, and 
he cannot get the birds he needs in condition any other 
way. For reasons already pointed out, the plumage that 
is grown in warm weather is not usually as good as that 
grown in the cool fall and early winter months, hence, it 
is a disadvantage to an exhibitor to have a bird that he 
wants to exhibit at a late show molt early, for not only 
will the new plumage begin to show the effects of wear 
and weather long before the show season is over, but if a 
partial molt occurs afterward the new feathers will be 
brighter than the rest of the plumage and it may be im- 
possible to get the bird in good show condition. 

Old cocks are especially troublesome about molting. 
I am of the opinion that in the greater number of cases 
the cause of this is using too many hens with males in the 
breeding pens, the drain on the vitality of the bird being 
so great that it neither molts normally nor is fit for breed- 
ing service early in its second season. 

When to Remove Unmolted and Damaged Feathers 

Estimating that a young immature bird or a yearling 
will take about three months to grow a full coat of feath- 
ers, and an older bird will take somewhat longer, the 
time a bird begins to drop feathers freely should be noted 
and, about two months before a date at which it is wanted 
to show, a thorough examination of the whole plumage 
should be made and all the unmolted and damaged feath- 
ers removed. If the bird is backward and slow in molt- 
ing and there are many such feathers, they may not be 
fully grown when the bird is to be shown but they should 
be near enough to it so that their lack of development 
will not be a serious handicap. The only way that birds 
timed to the day for particular shows can be secured 
with any regularity or certainty is by having enough of 
them that will be ready about that time .so that among 
them some will be right at show time. The supposed 
wizardry of some uncommonly successful exhibitors in al- 
ways having birds ready for shows at which they ex- 
hibit is about half in timely preparation and half in num- 
bers of birds from which to select. 

When only an occasional feather is to be plucked, all 



the old and damaged feathers on a bird that has com- 
menced to molt may be removed when the examination 
for such is made. When all the stiff feathers of both 
wings and tail have to be pulled, or when most of the 
feathers in a section that is backward in molting need to 
be' removed, the number to be taken at one time should 
be regulated by the ease with which they can be drawn. 
It is not usually advisable to take all the large stiff 
feathers at once, even if they pull with little resistance, 
because that is too much of a shock to the bird and may 
affect the other feathers that are in various stages of 
growth, making many of them faulty. The better way 
is to pull a few every day, taking one or two of the cor- 
responding feathers in each wing, or corresponding feath- 
ers from' the opposite sides of the tail. In the same way, 
if the hackle or the back feathers hang in molt they 
should be removed a few at a time. 

The Humane Way to Pull Feathers 

In pulling feathers the most effective and the right 
movement — the one causing the bird least pain and dis- 
comfort — is a strong quick pull, made with the bird or 
the part from which the feather is to be removed held 
firmly and steadily, and the pull at the angle' at which 
the feather leaves the body, so that it is a direct, straight 
pull. The feather should be grasped between the thumb 
and finger of one hand, close enough to the body to avoid 
bending or breaking the quill. One not expert in the oper- 
ation should then give a very easy test pull to determine 
whether he has such control of the bird or the part that 
it will not yield when the real pull is made. Having sat- 
isfied himself of this he may remove a small feather with 
one quick movement. In the case of a large feather it 
is better to pull strongly but slowly for an instant and 
then, after relaxing a very little, with as strong a quick 
pull as may be necessary, draw the feather out. 
One can get the idea best by practicing a little dry-pick- 
ing birds that have been killed for the table, taking one 
feather at a time between the thumb and finger instead of 
taking them by the handful as in ordinary plucking. Ex- 
cept while the bird is in the stunned condition, in which 
the feathers relax and are easily drawn, the feathers on a 
dead bird are much harder to draw than on a living one. 
In either case, the deliberate pulling of a feather takes 
much more strength than would appear necessary when 
we consider how easily feathers sometimes come out — - 
almost at a touch — when they are not wanted out. 

In pulling large wing feathers the wing must be held 
close to the root of the quill so that there is no strain on 
the bird or movement of the wing to give a slant to the 
pull at the moment pressure is applied. An expert can 
hold a bird between his arm and side or in his lap with 
the arm keeping it in place, leaving both hands free to 
hold the wing with one and draw the feather with the 
other. A novice usually finds himself rather clumsy and 
apt to hurt the bird when he tries this, but it is probably 
on the whole better for him to practice doing the whole 
thing himself until he is proficient, rather than to have 
someone hold the bird for him. When the person hold- 
ing the bird performs the operation he is able — after a 
little practice — to judge accurately of the state of resist- 
ance or relaxation of the bird and to apply the pull in the 
instant of relaxation when it is easiest for both the bird and 
the operator. In pulling tail feathers the bird is much 
easier held, for its wings are both folded and all its own 
weight is pulling in the opposite direction from the force 
drawing on the feather. 



CHAPTER VIII 



Definite Selection of Birds for Exhibition 

Methods of Systematic Examination for Faults Affecting Show Value — Discussion of Disqualifications and Most 
Common Defects of All Breeds and Varieties — Distinctions Between Removable and Permanent Faults — Points 
to be Considered in Selecting Single Birds — Importance of Studying Each Specimen from Many 
Angles and Under Varied Conditions of Light— Matching Pens — Why Birds do not Always 
Look Equally Well When Shown Single and When Shown in Pens 



About a month before a string of birds is wanted for 
exhibition the intending exhibitor should begin the 
work of definite selection of the specimens which 
then show — as far as they are developed and finished — 
exhibition quality and the possibility of being fit for that 
particular show, or of being forced to readiness, for it if 
a little backward. This selection should take nothing for 
granted on the strength of former observations as noted 
or remembered, but should be searching and thorough, 
and especially attentive to trivial faults. It might be sup- 



Conditioning and Training Coops 

Before beginning the work of selection provision must 
be made for the individual cooping of all male birds dur- 
ing the periods of fitting and training, and for the cooping 
of the females singly or in small groups. For fitting 
small strings of birds a room of appropriate size may be 
fitted up wherever is most convenient. Most small ex- 
hibitors have rather makeshift arrangements, often using 
a fairly well-lighted basement or cellar room in the house, 
or any available space in an outbuilding. Those who 




CONDITIONING ROOM OF E. B. THOMPSON, AMENIA, N. Y. MR. THOMPSON LOOKING A BIRD OVER 



posed that in previous examinations, and especially in 
handling when removing dead and broken feathers, an 
observant person would discover every fault. But it is 
surprising how many of the little faults in birds will es- 
cape observation through several examinations, and oc- 
casionally through all handling prior to the show. The 
reason for this is fairly obvious after one gets a little 
practice and is continually finding new faults which he 
had previously overlooked. In such examinations we, as a 
rule, really see only what we are looking for — except as 
the eye may happen to note something else in passing. 
So it is only by the most careful, systematic examination 
that one can be sure that he knows all the faults of a bird. 



have to condition many birds find it necessary to ar- 
range and equip a good-sized building for this purpose. 
In rooms devoted especially to birds being prepared for 
show or shipment the coops used are mostly the regular 
exhibition coops. Where it is desired to keep the birds 
confined separately or in small numbers, with more room 
than such coops afford, quarters are often fitted up with 
larger stationary coops, both on the ground and in tiers 
above. Houses arranged for small breeding pens are 
also sometimes used in the show season for small lots 
of birds in various stages of preparation for exhibition. 
The important thing is to have all the birds that have to 
be handled placed where they can be caught and handled 



58 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




TOP ROW— MODEL HEADS OP SINGLE COMB MALES 
Second and third rows — faulty heads of prize-winning birds* 

*Mr. Schilling has selected for this and the groups of heads on following pages only the heads of birds that were otherwise good 
enough to win — winning in spite of their heads. The reader will find it a useful exercise to identify the faults in_ these heads. He 
should examine and compare every character — comb, wattles, lobes, face, crown, neck, beak, eye and general expression. 

easily at any time, and where there is no danger of their 
being injured in any way. 

If the entry is to be limited to a certain number coops 
should be provided for enough reserve birds in excess of 
that number to insure that if anything goes wrong with a 
bird a substitute will be available. If it is the intention 
to show all available birds, final arrangements for coop- 
ing must of course wait until selections have been made. 
If one is short on regular exhibition coops, or the sub- 
stitutes for them in the room where the work of selection 
is done, shipping coops as used for high-class stock 
may be used to advantage to hold birds whose final dis- 
position it may be desirable to postpone until full ac- 
count of available stock has been taken. 

Order in Systematic Examination 

F'or convenience in presenting the subject and to 
avoid unnecessary repetition the points to be considered 
will be taken up in the following order: 

1. General disqualifications and defects — applying to 
many breeds. 



2. Disqualifying and serious defects in each breed. 

3. Color and color pattern faults, each color pat- 
tern being discussed for the varieties of the several breeds 
which have it. 

In following this outline each reader should have 
a bird in hand for examination. It is of little use for a 
novice to read such matter as this right along with the 
idea that he can retain it or any considerable part of it 
accurately in his mind and go out to the poultry house 
and apply it without a book. Considering only the matter 
of speed in making selections it is often an advantage to 
look for some of the most common disqualifications and 
for faults that cannot be remedied in other sections be- 
fore beginning with the head and going systematically 
through the bird section by section. For practice to ac- 
quire knowledge of the faults of birds and proficiency in 
detecting them, one should examine fully all the speci- 
mens he has which to general observation appear to have 
Standard quality, and try to make an accurate estimate of 
the exhibition value of each. 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



59 




-MODEL HEADS OF SINGLE COMB FEMALES 
third rows — faulty heads of prize-winning birds 



SINGLE COMBS 



Disqualifications — Lopped comb, except in females 
where the Standard calls for comb falling to one side; 
side sprigs; and split comb. 

A lopped comb is one that leans badly to one side. 
Such cannot be remedied. A comb that leans only a little 
may be straightened. A side sprig may be removed. 
Very expert surgery might fix a split comb so that the 
scar would not be noticeable, but unless the bird is un- 
commonly good and the fault slight the chances of de- 
tection make the risk greater than cautious exhibitors care 
to take. 

Serious Defects — Twisted combs — any lateral vari- 
ation from a straight, symmetrical form. 

A twist in the front of a comb, over the beak, may 
be near the base, in which case it appears as a "thumb- 
mark," or may cause adjoining spikes to point in dif- 
ferent directions. This irregularity of the spikes may oc- 
cur at other points. A twist at the rear takes the form of 
turning the blade to one side. All these faults, if not too 
serious, may be remedied by surgical operations, or by 



manipulation, or by the two processes combined. 

All single combs (except Minorca combs which have 
six points) are described in the Standard as having five 
points. Too many or too few points call for a cut of l /> 
for each point more or less than required. On this basis 
a four or a six-point comb, if neat and symmetrical, may 
be better than a five-point comb. Number of points 
alone does not make quality. But two points more or 
less than the required number makes a comb so different 
from the Standard in appearance and so likely to be 
heavily cut otherwise, that the one point cut for irregular 
number of points becomes serious. Coarseness of comb 
is also a serious defect, whether the coarseness be in size 
and outline or in texture. It is of particular importance 
to observe this point because coarseness of comb is often 
associated with general coarseness of structure and a 
loose unsymmetrical carriage. 

ROSE COMBS 

Disqualifications ^Lopped combs; combs so large 
as to obstruct the sight. (This is due to the comb spread- 
ing out and down while symmetrically balanced on a 
strong base); absence of rear spike. 



60 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




TOP ROW— MODEL HEADS OP ROSE COMB FOWLS, MALE AND FEMALE 
—faulty heads of prize-winning males. Third row — faulty heads of prize-winning female 



The first two conditions cannot be remedied. In some 
cases the absence of spikes is really failure of the spike 
to protrude normally as the comb grows, and this if 
taken in time can be remedied. 

Serious Defects — The common faults of rose combs all 
come under the general description of irregularity of 
form and excessive size. The Standard in all cases calls 
for a neat symmetrical comb with even, smoothly pebbled 
surface. There is a general tendency to extreme coarse- 
ness of pebbling with deep indentations between the 
rounded points which make the pebbled surface. There is 
also a common tendency to angularity of the comb, both 
in front and toward the rear where there may be quite 
a pronounced "shoulder" on either side of the base of the 
spike. In addition, many rose combs that follow the 
skull, where the Standard requires that, turn down with 
almost an angular bend in the upper surface which should 
curve smoothly; while others fail to follow the head and 
have a straight upper surface with the spike in the same 
line. This last type of comb is Standard for some breeds, 
but the comb with an angular turn above the crown is one 
of the most common and also one of the ugliest faults in 



good birds of the popular rose-combed breeds and vari- 
eties. Another almost as common fault is the rose comb 
with a depression in the center, sometimes coming well 
down forward giving a slightly cleft appearance to the 
front of the comb. At the present time these faults of 
irregularity and coarseness in rose combs do not appear 
to handicap a rose-combed bird as heavily as the cor- 
responding faults in single-combed birds do. Hence, in 
general, an exhibitor of rose combs does not have to be 
as particular about quality of comb as an exhibitor of 
single combs. 

PEA COMBS 

Serious Defects — Lack of clear definition of the long- 
itudinal sections which give this comb its "triple" char- 
acter, and of the serrations in each section. 

Originally the disqualification for lopped comb ap- 
plied to this as to the preceding forms, but for a long 
time pea combs have generally been too small for the 
lopping when present, as it frequently is, to be very un- 
sightly. For his own satisfaction a breeder of pea comb 
fowls should cultivate a good type of comb, but in select- 
ing birds for exhibition he can be quite indifferent about 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



61 



irregularities in the form of the comb, provided it is 
not large and coarse enough to make the faults con- 
spicuous. 

V-SHAPED COMBS 

In Standard breeds this type of comb is associated 
with large crests and beards and no refinement of form is 
demanded. 

CUP COMBS 

Serious Defects — Lack of cup-like formation and ir- 
regularity of the leaf-like points which form the sides of 
the cup. 

WATTLES 

In a measure, the character and texture of wattles 
correspond to the comb though the form is the same 
whether the comb be single, rose or pea. 

Serious Defects — Coarseness of texture is the only 
detect in wattles which has so far been listed in the Stand- 




mon form is the 
point of the upper 
beak twisting to one 
side and coming 
down over 



MODEL HEADS — CORNISH AND BRAII-MA PEA COMBS — MALAY STRAWBERRY COMB 
ard as demanding a specific cut. In selection it is of most 
importance for its association with coarseness of comb 
and of structure generally. 

EAR LOBES 

Disqualifications — Ideally an ear lobe should be eith- 
er all red, or all white or creamy white. In nearly all 
breeds the Standard disqualifies for a proportion of the 
undesirable color, the exact proportion being different 
for different breeds, and being gradually reduced as 
careful breeding increases the number of specimens 
free from foreign color in lobe. The precise requirements 
will be given in the lists of breed faults. White in red 
ear lobes appears in two forms — as positive enamel white 
in spots or patches on the surface of the lobe, and as 
mere absence of color or paleness of the lobe. The first 
is permanent and cannot be eradicated permanently with- 
out damaging the lobe. A small spot may 
be cut out and the lobe fixed so that it 
appears to have a scar which might re- 
sult from some other cause. Smell spots 
may be temporarily concealed by the use 
of cosmetics or dyes. Pale whitish ear 
lobes may be remedied by any treatment 
that brings the blood to the surface, or 
concealed by cosmetics or dyes. The lat- 
ter treatment is quite easily discovered 
if the judge suspects it, but will often 
pass unnoticed. The redness of lobes 
may often be increased by giving the 
birds an abundance of fresh air. Confine- 
ment and inactivity are not conducive to 
high color in the skin. 

Red in white ear lobes is sometimes 
due to exposure and disappears when the 
birds are confined under cover. Perma- 
nent red in a white enamel lobe cannot MODEL HEAD OF HOUDAN FEMALE 



be removed but may be concealed by cosmetics and pow- 
ders. A judge who is suspicious or who has the habit of 
examining lobes closely will easily detect faking of this 
kind. Yellow-white ear lobes are made white by many ex- 
hibitors by the process described in the next chapter. 
FACE 

Disqualifications — The only important point to con- 
sider in this section is enamel white in fowls of the breeds 
having large white ear lobes. This may be concealed in 
the same manner as in lobes — subject to the same risks. 
CRESTS 

Disqualifications — The Standard disqualifications re- 
lating to crests are practically obsolete, their appropri- 
ateness was really limited to the days before Standards 
were well distributed. The absence of crest in a crested 
breed is rated a disqualification, but no one thinks of ac- 
cepting such a bird as representative of a crested breed. 

Serious Defects — The most seri- 
ous shape defects in crests are irregu- 
larity of form partly due to the fact 
that the feathers in male and female 
crests, differing in structure as the 
feathers in male and female hackle do, 
corresponding degrees of fullness in 
the front of the crest do not give the 
same effects in the different sexes. 
The male crest corresponding to that 
of the best female crest tends to 
spread, the feathers turning sideways 
and forward instead of falling back 
smoothly. The female crest corresponding to the finest 
type of male crest is likely to lack fullness in front. As 
crest is the most valued feature in these ornamental 
breeds, good form in it must be given precedence in select- 
ing birds for exhibition. 

BEARDS AND MUFFS 
Disqualifications — Absence of these where required 
constitutes a disqualification. 

BEAKS AND BILLS 
Disqualifications — Crooked or deformed mandibles. 
The most com- 




FAULTY CREST OP HOUDAN MALE 

Dotted line shows size and outline of a 

model crest 



62 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



of the lower mandible, but sometimes both mandibles are 
twisted. There are also cases where one mandible is un- 
developed. If the malformation is very slight it is im- 
material, but if it is considerable a judge may construe it 
■as a deformity within the meaning of the Standard. In 
ducks and geese the large bill makes deformities so con- 
spicuous that they can hardly escape ordinary observation 
as slight deformities in the beaks of fowls often do. 

HEADS AND EYES 

Serious Defects— It may seem that after all the points 
so far considered there could be little room left for seri- 
ous defects about the head. There are no more disqual- 
ifications, and the defects for which specific cuts have 
been prescribed in the Standard are in color of the eyes; 
but the character of the head and the expression of the 
eyes should be given close attention when selecting birds 
for exhibition. 

The most common objectionable type of head to be 
avoided is the snaky head often called "crow head." If 
one has looked the head adjuncts over, and thinks he has 
found that comb and other appendages are free from seri- 
ous faults, and are well developed and about right, and 
still it appears to him that the head is rather fine drawn, 
or rather coarse, he may reasonably assume that the im- 
pression the head gives him is correct, and that he needs 
to revise his judgments about the other parts to the ex- 
tent of concluding that though he can find no serious 
fault in them they are not good. If the head impresses 
him as too fine, he should in further examination of the 
bird look particularly for corresponding lack of devel- 
opment of the whole frame. The head is not an unfail- 
ing index of this, but it is a fairly reliable one. If the head 
impresses him as too coarse, he should be on the alert 
for coarseness everywhere and for indications of the lack 
of symmetry and of the ability to pose gracefully, which 
are the usual results and accompaniments of coarseness. 
In a very few breeds, which will be especially mentioned 
in course, massiveness of structure, including massive- 
ness of head, is desired; but on the whole the best heads, 
the most appropriate to the size of the bird, are those of 
which one never thinks as especially showing any char- 
acter except as that is shown in the expression of the 
eyes. 

The color of the eyes should be especially noted, 
and as eyes frequently differ in color it is not enough 
to examine one eye and take it for granted that the other 
is of the same color Nothing can be done to change the 
color of eyes. Color faults in them may subject a bird to 
a cut of as much as V/2 points. Particular attention 
should also be given to the shape and expression of the 
eye. for in a measure that is a check on one's judgment 
of the standard of the head. In nearly all cases the 
Standard calls for a round, full eye. Sometimes the phrase 
"prominent" or "bold" is added. This character and ex- 
pression of eye are rarely found in a poor head or in a 
bird lacking vitality. The tendency in such cases is to 
contracted and sunken eyes. In a few breeds with very 
broad crowns a god eye will be overhung by the brow 
above but it will have the appearance of a sunken eye. 
If a specimen at this stage of preparation for exhibition 
shows lack of character and expression in the head and 
eyes, its future value as an exhibition bird is very doubt- 
ful. If it has good quality in other respects it is worth 
while for the owner to do what he can to bring it on; 
but he need not feel disappointed if it fails him before 
he has finished it for the show or in the showroom. 



DAMAGED HEAD PARTS 

Birds are often injured in ways that mar their ap- 
pearance, sometimes very much so. Parts of combs and 
wattles are lost by the frost or in fighting, or by cutting 
on wire fences and partitions, or the raw edges of pails 
or hoppers. Ear lobes are torn, and white ones in par- 
ticular have their surface damaged so that it will never 
come smooth again. The novice is always in doubt about 
exhibiting such birds. No advice applicable to all cases 
can be given. The extent of the injury, the grade of 
competition, and the attitude of the judge, all enter into 
calculations as to the wisdom of putting a bird that ob- 
viously is permanently out of exhibition form in com- 
petition. The sex an'd age of the bird also are to be con- 
sidered. An old cock that is in excellent condition apart 
from such an injury may come through creditably where 
a cockerel would not have the ghost of a chance, for the 
simple reason that nearly all exhibitors have fewer old 
cocks to show and usually have a proportion of the cocks 
damaged more or less about the head, while well supplied 
with cockerels in prime condition. For strong competition 
an injured bird is very poor dependence. 

NECK 
The serious faults in this section are principally color 
faults. Many birds in all breeds have rather poor form 
and carriage of the neck, but unless the bird is very un- 
symmetrical, and unresponsive to training as well, it can 
be taught to pose so that deficiency in this section will 
count little if at all against it. The form and habitual 
carriage of the neck are of most importance in the Cor- 
nish, Malays, Exhibition Games and Game Bantams, in 
all of which the length of the neck itself and the shortness 
of the plumage give its actual lines and carriage an im- 
portance they do not have to anything like the same de- 
gree when the hackle is abundant and long. 

BACK 

Disqualifications — In all kinds of poultry a crooked 
back disqualifies for exhibition. The most common forms 
of crooked back are what is known as "roach back," a 
sort of hump back; elevation of one hip; and crookedness 
at the shoulders. Roach back is often apparent at sight, 
but may not be in short-backed birds having a profusion 
of feathers. There are of course all degrees of this, as of 
the other two faults. By passing the palm of the hand 
from the neck to the tail, holding it flat on the bird's back, 
one can feel any irregularity of formation. If this leaves 
him in doubt as to whether the fault is so serious that the 
bird would unquestionably be disqualified, or is light 
enough to give the specimen the benefit of the doubt, he 
should observe closely the carriage of the bird as it 
stands or responds to posing, noting whether it stands 
squarely and balances itself well, and turns easily and 
gracefully. If it evidently has a "limp" he may conclude 
that there is deformity at the hips. If it does not carry 
its wings alike or carries both wrong, or holds one shoul- 
der plainly higher than the other, it may be concluded that 
the unevenness noted by touch at the shoulders is great 
enough to attract the notice of the judge and to cause him 
to set it back, if he does not qualify. In general, a 
back that is not a good, straight, strong, symmetrical 
back so affects the carriage and shape of a fowl that the 
lack of symmetry affects nearly every section. 

In considering shape of back as noted by the eye, ac- 
count must be taken of the effect of length and profusion 
of plumage on apparent shape of back. Thus the con- 
vexity of the lines of the back noted in some short-feath- 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



63 



ered breeds of poultry, in turkeys, and some breeds of 
geese and ducks, is due to the shortness of the plumage 
at shoulders and rump, and to some extent to the high 
carriage of the wings. Nothing can be done to remedy a 
crooked back. If a novice can discover it, he can hardly 
expect to get by an expert, for very few judges fail to 
look for it, and most judges are not inclined to be lenient 
with faults in shape in this section. 

TAIL 

Disqualifications — Wry tail in all poultry; squirrel 
tail in all kinds except Japanese Bantams; absence of main 
tail feathers. 

A wry tail that disqualifies is one that is carried 
permanently to one side to a degree that is noticeable. A 
tail that is very slightly to one side is not considered a 
wry tail, nor is one that the bird carries straight a part 
of the time. Decidedly wry tails are usually due to de- 
formity or injurty of the fleshy protuberance out of which 
the tail feathers grow. It cannot be remedied. A 
slightly wry tail or occasionally wry tail may be caused 
by a minor injury to the muscles or tendons, or in some 
cases be a habit contracted as a result of roosting or 
sitting where the tail is held to one side. This form of 
wry tail may be remedied by a simple surgical operation, 
or by bending the feathers. 

Nearly all high-tailed birds carry their tails at times 
so high that if judged with the tail at highest angle they 
would be disqualified for squirrel tail. A judge in passing 
on this point is supposed to take into consideration the 
tendency of birds to throw the tail up when excited and 
to make an effort to have the bird pose with the tail at 
a proper angle. Unless a bird persists in throwing the 
tail past the allowed limit for disqualification a judge 
does not disqualify it for this fault, but he does discount 
as a serious fault the carrying of the tail at any angle 
higher than that described in the Standard for a breed. 
A high tail makes a sharp angle with the back and parts 
the saddle so that the lesser coverts and saddle feathers 
on the back, at the root of the tail, fall sharply to the 
sides instead of flowing back as they should to cover the 
main tail feathers and sickles at the base. 

The tails of fowls may be bent in any manner desired, 
and the saddle feathers bent and raised to give breadth and 
fullness in front of the tail, and the desired curve to the 
back. The method of doing this is given in detail in the 
next chapter. It is in order to observe here however, that 
to do this well is an art requiring some practice and the be- 
ginner would do well to acquire some proficiency with 
birds he does not intend to show before trying it on one 
he is depending on for an approaching exhibition. 

Entire absence of main tail feathers is a condition 
presumed to be due to their removal because of badly 
defective color. The occasion for inserting it in the 
Standard however, arose in connection with the custom 
of plucking the tails of Cochins to have them grown by 
the time the bird was to be shown just enough to give the 
desired outline and hold the abundant soft feathers of the 
small sickles and coverts in place. Repeated pluckings 
for this purpose gave in some cases very old tails on com- 
paratively young birds, for each time a tail was plucked 
and grew in, it came with the qualities of a tail a year 
older than the one before it. The result was that oc- 
casionally a new tail came so poor in color that the ex- 
hibitor pulled it out and showed a bird either without a 
main tail, or with the feathers of it just starting and not 
yet showing their faults. The usual explanation was 
that the tail had been pulled by accident. 



Serious Defects — The most common faults other than 
those already mentioned, seen in the tails of birds at 
shows, are tails only partly grown out and tails of full 
length and development, or nearly so, with one or more 
large feathers removed or broken off. In general, the 
presumption is that such feathers have been removed or 
broken to conceal color faults. It is, of course, possible 
and probable that occasionally such feathers were broken 
or lost by accident. 

Partly grown tails are frequently seen in the show 
room in all breeds. From what has been said of the fre- 
quent delay in the molting of tail feathers, it is apparent 
that many such cases are due to failure to remove the old 
feathers in time for the new ones to grow out before the 
show. Punishment for this fault of condition is varied ac- 
cording to the degree of development of the tail, on the 
theory that the nearer full length it is without showing 
a fault the greater the probability that it is free from 
fault. Thus, a tail that is only one-fourth grown is cut 
3 points, one that is half grown is cut 2 points, and one 
that is three-fourths grown is cut only 1 point. 

Broken or missing main tail and sickle feathers are in 
some breeds cut so much for each feather, and in others 
made a disqualification if the damage is in a section where 
foreign color is a disqualification. Where a feather is 
accidently broken off the loss may be concealed by splic- 
ing a perfect feather to the quill, if one that matches the 
others can be obtained. Feathers having color faults 
are sometimes cut off near the base and perfect feathers 
spliced to the quills. This practice appears to be more 
common in England, where the birds are not handled 
and examined as closely as in our showrooms, but oc- 
casionally a specimen turns up at an American show with 
a spliced tail that may not excite any suspicion when 
seen from the aisle, but is easily discovered when the 
judge goes through the bird. 

In all breeds where a short full tail is desired there 
are many specimens that have such a tail only when it is 
about three-fourths grown. Later the main tail feathers 
are too long to look well, and the sickles also straggle 
out beyond the tail in a manner not at all pleasing. The 
principal cause of this characteristic is probably the use 
of long-tailed hens as breeders. Most breeders of ex- 
hibition stock of the breeds in which what may be called 
modified bushy tails are desired are quite careful to avoid 
the use of males with this fault in the breeding pen, 
taking them only when they are so good in other re- 
spects that this fault must be overlooked; but few breed- 
ers are as careful as they should be to avoid the use of 
long-tailed hens, and above all their use with males hav- 
ing longish tails. The result is a continuous outcropping 
in the flock of males that show really good form in this 
section a little before fully developed; the constant neces- 
sity of making careful computations as to the probable 
size of a tail when fully developed; and the need of pulling 
a growing tail in order to have the next one the appropriate 
length when the bird is to be shown. With the most 
careful calculations and the most expert management 
the matter is difficult to adjust, and the wise exhibitor 
always has enough males in various stages of feather 
development to avoid being caught at the time of exhi- 
bition with none that are near right in this section. 

WINGS 

Disqualifications — Clipped flights or secondaries; white 
in same, in various color patterns. 

This point concerns chiefly new exhibitors at new 
shows. In all localities where no shows have been held 



(.4 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



for some time there are often amateur breeders with 
some very good stock, who have not been showing any- 
where, and who have thought it more economical to clip 
the wings of birds disposed to fly out of their yards than 
to make fences high enough to keep them in. Plans are 
made perhaps not more than four or five weeks ahead 
for a show near them. They decide to exhibit and when 
they come to select birds find a part or perhaps all of 
them have clipped wings. The breeder thinks that he 
knows those wings were good in color. In clipping them 
he had no thought of anything but the quickest way to 
keep the birds in bounds. It seems an unfortunate thing 
in the light of the situation that has developed, but he 
thinks perhaps considering the circumstances an exception 
might be made in this case. The local show managers 
might take a similar view if new to the game, for there 
are likely to be prospective exhibitors in the same fix, 
and they want to bring in as many local birds as possible. 
I would not say that no judge would connive at such an 
understanding, but I never knew one to do so. The judge 
has to consider both his own reputation and the interest 
of competitors whose birds are shown in perfect con- 
dition, and who have the right to insist, and if present 
certainly would insist, on the application of the rule 
provided for such cases. There is nothing to do with the 
birds having clipped wings but to leave them at home, 
or show them "not for competition." Color faults are so 
common in the flights and secondaries that the rule is 
a wise one. 

Broken and missing feathers in the flights are a dis- 
qualification or defect according to whether a serious 
defect which might have been in the missing feather or 
part of a feather is a disqualification. Cases where for- 
eign color disqualifies will be considered undercolor. 

Serious Defects — Twisted flights; broken or missing 
primaries or secondaries. 

The two wings of a bird usually have the same faults, 
but occasionally a fault will be found in one and not in 
the other. Hence, each wing should be fully examined. 
Twisted feathers in one wing only would be supposed to 
be caused by an injury to the wing which prevented the 
feather or feathers from growing in the normal position. 
Twisted feathers in both wings might possibly result 
from such an accident, but are more likely to be due to 
congenital slight deformity of the last joint of the wing. 

A slipped wing may or may not be permanent. Many 
birds that normally fold the wing right and tuck it close 
will slip the wing more or less when excited or tired. Al- 
most any bird that is being handled and examined, the 
wings opened and perhaps held open for some time, may 
fail to tuck its wing immediately when put on its feet 
again. In that case a light touch at the lower edge of the 
folded wing may prompt the bird to tuck it closely. Or, 
if this is ineffective, to simply take hold lightly with 
the thumb and finger and draw the wing out and down 
a little bit, and then release it, may result in the bird 
tucking it right. The natural thing is for the bird to 
fold the wing properly when it has been moved out of 
position — if it can. If repeated efforts to make the 
bird fold the wing right are unavailing, it is still possible 
that if the bird is let alone for a while it will fold the 
wing right. Of one thing an exhibitor may be quite sure 
— that a bird that slips its wings with a very little hand- 
ling at home will be as bad or worse in the showroom. 
He will also find that some birds that were never known 
to fail to fold the wings right after handling at home 
will show slipped wings after a day or two on exhibition. 



This cannot be guarded against except so far as good 
care and sufficient exercise while the birds are being 
conditioned gives them strong vitality. Wright describes 
a method of helping slipped wings while the birds are 
molting by carefully tying the flight feathers in the 
position they should have when properly folded. The 
efficiency of this would appear to be much greater where 
the birds are not handled than where the wings are 
opened as much, both by judges and by exhibitors them- 
selves to show to others, as is usual in American shows. 
In many color patterns the wings and tails are the parts 
most difficult to keep free from color faults, and the 
places where weakness in color shows first. In some, 
excellence of wing color is sought to an extent that gives 
it undue importance. So birds generally at American 
shows have wings opened and handled a great deal, and it 
is of great importance that they should be trained to fold 
the wings promptly if they can. The judge will generally 
give a bird that otherwise would be in the awards every 
opportunity in reason to show that the fault is not per- 
manent. I have known a judge to delay awards in a class 
overnight simply to see whether the cockerel which, but 
for a slipped wing, was the best in the class could show 
perfect form. 

Broken and missing feathers are always assumed to 
represent removed defects, and the effort of an exhibitor 
to at least raise a doubt whether the fault existed. A 
feather that is partly broken — that is, the broken part 
not completely detached — is given a lighter cut than one 
that is broken off or missing. Usually it is inadvisable 
to show birds in strong competition if they must submit 
to the heavy cuts for damaged wings, but in a small show 
or in weak competition the damaged bird might win in 
spite of this handicap. Were it not that the handling 
wings get is apt to expose anything of the kind, it would 
not be a very hard matter to cut off slightly twisted 
flights and splice them on straight. As it is there is little 
temptation to faking in this particular. 

BREAST, BODY AND FLUFF 

In these sections there are no disqualifications. It 
is a curious fact, however, that "crooked breast" or keel 
bone was for many years disqualified by many judges, by 
some on the supposition that the Standard expressly 
mentioned it as a general disqualification, arfd by others 
on the supposition that the Standard contained a speci- 
fication calling for disqualification for "any positive 
deformity" which should apply to it. As far 
as I have been able to discover, the term crook- 
ed breast never appeared in the Standard until 
1905, when that defect was added to the list for which 
specific cuts were recommended; nor did the Standard 
ever contain a general provision that birds should be 
disqualified for any deformity — either positive or doubt- 
ful. The nearest approach to this was the provision in 
the case of one or two breeds in some of the older editions 
of the Standard, that birds should be disqualified for wry 
tails, crooked backs, crooked beaks, "and any other de- 
formity." The idea that crooked breast was a disquali- 
fication appears to have been due to confusion of stand- 
ards in the mind of judges, and to the fact that in all times 
since the judging of poultry by written standards began, 
a great many judges with no accurate knowledge of the 
provisions for the different breeds and varieties have 
undertaken to judge "all varieties" by a sort of general 
standard formula made up by themselves. "Any deform- 
ity" is a very convenient formula, and most people would 
say — a good one; but it has never been "Standard." 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



65 



Serious Defects — Crooked breast; flat breast; narrow- 
ness and„"snallowness of body; short fluff — or apparent 
short fluff. 

Crooked breast is a generally preventable defect 
which has been considered in connection with the care of 
exhibition chickens to insure normal development. De- 
tected at a very early age, it might be largely if not wholly 
corrected by keeping the birds on thick, soft bedding so 
that there would be no pressure on the keel and it might 
grow straight again. Few breeders can watch and examine 
small chickens closely enough always to find it early. 
When found at the time of selecting birds for exhibition 
nothing can be done for it farther than to have the bird in 
as good. flesh as possible so that the keel will not be prom- 
inent and its irregular form noticeable at first touch. How 
far this may be successful depends a great deal on the 
structure of the bird and of the keel. A prominent crook- 
ed keel cannot be helped much, while a rather low keel 
may be so concealed by fullness of flesh on either side that 
a slight crookedness in it is overlooked. Unless very bad, 
a crooked breast does not seriously handicap an exhibition 
bird, for it does not show, nor does it affect the carriage 
of the bird as deformities of the back do. 

The other faults mentioned are of less consequence 
from the exhibitor's standpoint for most judges do not 
give the same attention to them as to crooked breast; but 
a few judges have always been severe on lack of develop- 
ment in these sections, and of late years much more at- 
tention is given to them than formerly. In nearly all 
breeds the Standard calls for fullness of breast and body 
and moderate fullness of fluff. Fullness of breast is evinced 
in breadth, depth and roundness of breast as the bird 
stands. Depth of body may also be observed in the 
standing bird, but width and fullness of body are better 
determined by touch as the bird is held in the hand. 
Practically the first thing that one accustomed to hand- 
ling birds in the method used in examining exhibition 
specimens notes when he catches a bird is the character- 
istic of the body, whether full or poorly developed, as 
the bird rests on his hand. 

Shortness of fluff is desired in some breeds but not 
in others. The general point to note in regard to it is the 
relation between apparent length and fullness of fluff 
and the shape of the body. Looking at the Standard il- 
lustrations, or at illustrations of almost any superior Stand- 
ard specimens, one may observe that the well-balanced 
bird, unless very short in fluff, shows almost as much 
length of body back of the leg as before it. Apparent 
length, depth and fullness of the posterior part of the body 
depend a good deal upon the condition of the bird. In a 
female there is, as a rule, more fullness here at any time 
than in the male, and in the laying hen or pullet the dif- 
ference is increased. In males, and in females not laying, 
any apparent lack of development here can be greatly 
helped by putting on all the flesh the bird can carry and 
keep in good condition. 

This method can be applied to some extent to improve 
the lines of breast and body, but if the posterior parts 
have fair development to start with an amount of fleshing 
that would fill out a thin breast might make them baggy, 
especially in old birds of the heaviest breeds. 

LEGS AND TOES 

Disqualifications On All Breeds — Legs and toes of 
color not conforming to Standard requirements for the 
breed; toes not conforming in number to the Standard re- 
quirement for the breed; web feet. 

In nearly all breeds and stocks some specimens are 



found which do not conform to the Standard in color of 
beak, legs and skin of body. Thus, in yellow-legged 
breeds, we find some birds with flesh-colored legs and a - 
pale skin, and some with very dark or willow legs and rich 
yellow skin; in breeds required to have flesh-colored legs 
we find some decidedly yellow; and so on. Between the 
color that undoubtedly meets the Standard requirement 
and one that does not any grade may be found. The 
question is where to draw the line in disqualification. 
Usually it is decided according to the preponderant color. 
That is — a yellow' leg may be a weak, poor yellow, with 
a fleshy or whitish tinge, but as long as it is yellowish 
it would not be disqualified, though the color would be 
discounted. 

In the case of a dark leg on a yellow-skinned bird, 
the color is mostly in the scale and is caused by pig- 
mentation of the scales corresponding to pigmentation of 
the feathers. Usually this is more pronounced in females 
than in males, and most prevalent in pullets before they 
mature. Another point of color often noted in yellow and 
light-colored legs is a reddish tinge, sometimes quite a 
bright red on the outside of the shank on males. This 
high color on the shank is a common phenomenon on male 
birds of many kinds, and is usually most intense in the 
breeding season. It is not considered "foreign" color, 
but a bird having a bright leg of the desired color all over 
is preferred when a decision comes down to the point of 
turning on color of legs. In score-card judging, practice as 
to cutting here for color varies considerably; usually the 
cut is not made unless the red impression is most promi- 
nent. All color faults on shanks can be concealed by use 
of the appropriate coloring pigment, but where very heavy 
applications are required to give the effect desired a judge 
is quite apt to rub enough of the color off to satisfy him 
that he can justify himself for leaving the bird out of an 
award it might be entitled to were its legs naturally of 
good color. 

The disqualification for wrong number of toes is of 
most interest to breeders of the few breeds required to 
have five toes, and to breeders of Cochin Bantams, into 
some strains of which the fifth toe apears to have been 
introduced by crossing with Silkies. Occasionally, one 
of the common four-toed breeds will have a fifth toe on 
one or both feet. If the toe is well developed, an ob- 
servant poultryman is apt to note this as the chick runs 
about before its gets very large, but if it is quite small 
he may not. Occasionally a bird has only three toes on 
one or both feet. Usually the rear toe is the missing one 
and its absence may not be noted until the bird is caught 
and examined carefully. In five-toed breeds specimens 
often appear with only four toes, and not infrequently with 
six toes. 

Web foot is not very common. When pronounced it 
is so conspicuous that it will hardly escape the notice of 
the amateur long before selection for exhibition begins. 

Serious Defects — Crooked toes; scaly legs; bumble- 
foot: corns. 

The most common form of crooked toe is the pos- 
itively deformed, badly twisted toe. Very few birds in 
the yards of exhibitors get to maturity with bad faults in 
this respect because it is the common practice to kill them 
when hatched, but one who has not culled early may find 
an otherwise fine specimen with a badly crippled foot — 
possibly all the toes on one. foot twisted. In a score-card 
show the most that can be done to a crooked toe (no mat- 
ter how bad), when one does appear, is to give it a cut 
of 1 point. In a comparison show the judge can set the 



66 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




SOME COMMON KXAMPLKS OF HAD FKKT OX PKIZK -WINNING I11I4I 



bird back for the fault as much as he wants to. The in- 
structions to judges using the comparison system say that 
the judge must give all defects their proper valuation, but 
as there is manifestly no way to determine whether a 
judge has done that except by a score card, the judge can 
do as he pleases. In cases of this kind, at both score-card 
and comparison shows, where the Standard instructions 
do not cover an unsightly fault, a judge may apply the 
first of the general disqualifications and simply declare 
that the bird is unworthy of an award and should be, and 
is disqualified. The opinion of exhibitors will usually 
support the judge who does this. 

The ordinary case of crooked toe to which the specified 
cut of Vi to 1 in the Standard lists of cuts for defects is 
intended to apply is any toe that is not straight. In the 
three forward toes crookedness usually is in curvature to 
one side, the curve starting at one of the two last joints of 
the toe. Curvature of the hind toe is more likely to be 
at the junction with the foot, giving in extreme cases the 
formation called duck foot, and in others only a little dis- 
placement which may pass unnoticed unless one is on the 
lookout for it. Most judges are not at all lenient toward 
crooked toes except in cases where the 
defect is very slight. Hence, it is in 
general not good policy to show a bird 
that has two or more toes subject to 
cuts for this fault, unless it is so good 
otherwise that it can stand these cuts 
and still rank among possible candidates 
for high honors. 

Scaly leg, bumblefoot, and corns arc 
common faults of condition which the 
judge can treat as he pleases. Most 
judges take the position that there is 
no excuse for showing birds with any 
of these faults; and that the fact that a 
bird has uncommon merit, instead of 
justifying the owner in showing it in 
such a condition, aggravates his short- 
coming. If any of these troubles exist 
and are found a month before the show 
there is ample time to cure any but bad '"' e teathers on 
cases of bumblefoot. 

Disqualifications on Smooth Legs — Feathers, stubs or 
down on shanks or feet; evidence of removal of feathers, 
stubs or down from shanks or feet. 

These growths are different grades of the same fault. 
They are most troublesome in the smooth-legged breeds 
of Asiatic ancestry, on one side, but no breed is free from 
them. Feathers and stubs grow on the outside of the 



shank, usually on the upper part near the hock. There 
may be only one or two of them, or there may be a line 
halfway down the shank or more. Technically, a feather 
is a growth having, however small, quill, shaft and web; a 
stub has quill and web, but no shaft; down is a minute 
fuzzy growth without visible quill or shaft. Down may 
come anywhere along the line on which feathers and stubs 
come on the outside of the shank or at the junction of 
the shank or foot in front, or between the toes — usually 
in the angle at the junction of the web and toe, but fre- 
quently out in the surface of the web. Small stubs and 
down may also come occasionally on the side of the toe 
where the feathers grow in feather-legged breeds. 

At this stage of selection and preparation the exhib- 
itor need not concern himself about down. If he finds 
some feathers or stubs, the question is first whether they 
can be removed and traces concealed, and if so, whether 
he intends to do that. If any of the feathers are of con- 
siderable size — large enough to leave quite a hole when 
removed — or if stubs are numerous, the prospects of fak- 
ing the legs and escaping detection are poor. If there 
are just a few small stubs they can be fixed up so that 








CORRECT AND INCORRECT FOOT FEATHERING 
the shanks and toes of fowls should grow nearly 
from the part 



iffht angles 



the chances of the traces being detected are small. If the 
exhibitor is not disposed to fix them up, there is no use 
working further with the bird having them. It is appro- 
priate, however, to say in this connection that any bird, 
no matter how free from this fault when examined at one 
time, may develop down or stubs within a few days and 
sometimes overnight and the novice in exhibiting should 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



67 



bear in mind that this is a point that may come up with 
any bird at any time. If the faults are to be removed the 
time to do it is at the latest possible moment before the 
birds are judged. 

Disqualifications on Feathered Legs — Shanks not feath- 
ered for their full length on the outer side; outer toes 
not feathered to the last joint (except that in Langshans 
the feathering may stop at the middle joint, and in Silk- 
ies and Sultans a bare outer toe does not disqualify); vul- 
ture hocks; evidence of the removal of vulture hocks. 
In Cochins and Cochin Bantams a bare middle toe dis- 
qualifies. 

The disqualifications for absence of feathers are made 
to suit the grade of feathering required on the feet in each 




fcfti i 



ENGLISH-TYPE LIGHT BRAHMA 
Note the extremely heavy foot feathering. Also note the bird 
is not short legged. This type is correctly described ^s "cochinny" 
but that description is not appropriate for a Brahma that has Stand- 
ard foot feathering, though it should be very short on the leg and 
appear dumpy. 

case. It might me said that in general the disqualifying 
point is halfway to the extreme point of the toe which the 
Standard requires should be feathered. Bad cases of vul- 
ture hocks cannot be remedied. Slight cases of vulture 
hock may be fixed by plucking the undesirable feathers so 
that they will be partly grown when the bird is shown. 

A good judge of the heavy-feathered breeds in which 
this fault most frequently occurs can generally determine 
easily whether there is occasion to look for evidence that 
very bad hocks have been fixed, for the foot feathering of 
vulture-hocked birds shows, as a rule, much larger, coarser 
and stiffer feathers than are found on birds with soft 
hocks. 

Serious Defects — Bare toes where feathering is re- 
quired, but absence does not disqualify; scanty and broken 
feathering on legs and feet. 

Bare middle toes in Brahmas and Brahma Bantams 
are cut 1 for each toe. A bird that is good in other re- 
spects can stand being discounted here but one that has 



any other pronounced fault has little chance in good com- 
petition with the additional handicap that the bare toes im- 
pose. While it is not invariably so, it commonly happens 
that birds with bare middle toes are subject to a further cut 
for scantiness and shortness of the whole foot feathering. 

Broken foot feathering is mostly due to wear. Birds 
with feathered feet cannot be allowed to do much scratch- 
ing, or to run in long grass or weeds while the plumage in 
which they are to be shown is growing. Exhibitors and 
breeders of this type of fowl take special care to have the 
foot feathering in good condition until after showing and 
then to compel the birds to take exercise as others do. 
While it is desirable to have the foot feathers perfect when 
shown, a little raggedness at the ends is not a fatal fault. 
Other things being equal the bird in best condition would 
win, but a bird that has the right amount of foot feather- 
ing, and in good color, will stand better in this section 
than one a little scant in feather, and perhaps a little weak 
in color that has the feathers perfect. 

Weight Disqualifications — The margin between the re- 
quired Standard weights and the disqualifying weights is 
uniform at two pounds below for old and young, male and 
female, in all kinds of poultry but turkeys, where it is six 
pounds below, and bantams, where it is four ounces above 
Standard weight. As the disqualifying weights for chick- 
ens and poultry do not apply until December 1, the allow- 
ance is in most cases so liberal that there is no excuse for 
anyone having birds disqualified for weight. The weight 
requirements are on the whole of less importance at com- 
parison shows than at score-card shows, for at the former 
neither disqualifications nor cuts in this section are reg- 
ularly and systematically applied. The judge may or may 
not give weight and size due consideration, making them 
the factors in his decision that they necessarily are when 
the birds are scored according to Standard. 

Weight Defects — These are intended by the Standard 
to apply at all times whether disqualifications are in force 
or not. Hence it is always to the advantage of the exhibit- 
or to have his birds approximate Standard weights as 
closely as possible. It does not particularly profit an 
exhibitor to have a bird escape disqualification for lack of 
weight and be cut from 4 to 6 points for the shortage that 
just misses disqualification. In selecting birds a month 
before the show ample time is given to bring all that are 
healthy and rugged well up to Standard weight when 
shown. The exhibitor should weigh every bird, make a 
note of the weight, and systematically work to have all at 
the nearest to Standard weight they make and remain 
in good condition when shown, preferring to give all that 
can stand it a little margin over Standard weight as they 
enter the show. 

BREED DISQUALIFICATIONS AND SERIOUS 
DEFECTS 

NOTE — Under this head are given the disqualifica- 
tions, additional to general disqualifications previously 
mentioned, peculiar to certain breeds, and the defects of 
breed character to which the exhibitor needs to give 
special attention in selecting, and which are too commonly 
overlooked. 

PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

Disqualifications — Any positive white in ear lobes. 

This a most important point because in all other 
breeds of the same class a considerable amount of enamel 
white in lobes passes without disqualification. 

Serious Defects — Lack of size, weight and type; 
coarseness in large birds; knock-knees; pinched tails. 



68 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




much bnne ar 
lens with the 
irial fat. 



ird-shape PI 
little flesh, 
fault that j)i 



type in Plymouth Rock 

and decidedly ''baggy'' 
er Iheir first laying pei 



bird, lacking substance. 



Undersized birds are always most numerous in the 
large and medium-large breeds, because poor management 
in growing the chickens affects them more. Faulty type 
in small birds is likely to be an overrefined type, 
which is not in itself unattractive to one who has not 
well fixed in his mind the correct Standard Plymouth Rock 
type. Where such off-type birds are selected, though 
birds of much better type are in the flock, it is usually 
because the person making the selection is following his 
own ideas without reference to the Standard and model 
illustrations. The selection of birds faulty in an opposite 
direction is usually due to misconceptions arising" from 
atempts to follow the letter of the Standard description 
without referring to model illustrations to get the true 
interpretation. 

Thus the neck and back of the Plymouth Rock male 
are described as "rather long." The Standard makers and 
revisers in formulating this description had in mind the 
question of differentiation in the type of Plymouth Rocks 
and other breeds of the same class, and particularly the 
Wyandotte. The breeder who is considering only Ply- 
mouth Rocks, and probably has never paid any attention 
to other types, quite naturally interprets it as meaning 



that the bird should appear to be rather long in both neck 
and back. Another breeder new to the selection of birds 
for exhibition, noting that the Standard calls for a "broad, 
deep and full" body, for large thighs, and shanks "stout, set 
well apart," chooses a heavy, low-down bird in which these 
are the conspicuous characteristics of shape. The only 
way to avoid such errors is to learn what the words of the 
Standard mean by observing how they apply to Standard 
models and to the best specimens one has an opportunity 
to see. 

Different varieties of Plymouth Rocks sometimes have 
certain peculiarity of form more pronounced than in other 
varieties. Thus White Plymouth Rocks at the present 
time show in many flocks an undue proportion of rangy, 
extremely long-legged andi longnbacked specimens (re- 
sulting from the reaction in breeding to make the White 
Rock conspicuously unlike the White Wyandotte in shape. 
Buff Rocks, on the other hand, are apt to be rather 
short. In all other varieties — Partridge, Silver Penciled 
and Columbian — specimens of either sex having the size, 
weight and type of the birds that win in good competition 
in Barred and White varieties are comparatively scarce. 
So in making selection in these varieties one who finds 




-Standard Plymouth Rock female shape. Left — A common faulty type, high on the legs, body not properly balanced. 
Right — Very heavy and coarse Plymouth Rock shape 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



69 




Center — Standard Wyandotte male shape. Left — A common type of unde 
lacking in vitality. Right — High-stationed, rangy Wyandotte male, a type especi 
English blood introduced years ago. but frequently found in all varieties. 



his birds rather deficient in these respects can make allow- 
ance for that, knowing that the condition is general in 
the variety. 

WYANDOTTES 

Disqualifications — Positive white covering more than 
one-fourth of the surface of the ear lobe. 

Serious Defects — Extreme shortness and blockiness 
(most often found in White Wyandottes) ; absence of 
blockiness of type (giving in some birds ranginess and a 
stilted carriage, and in other undergrown birds an over- 
refined Wyandotte type, having the Wyandotte lines to 
some extent but in too small size and too finely drawn 
to give true type); long, loose feathering (giving bulkiness 
of appearance out of all proportion to the actual weight, 
and what is called "cochinny" type). 

The extremes of fault in shape are found most often 
in White Wyandottes, and by far the greater proportion 
of birds of good type are also found in this variety. In 
most of the other varieties variation from Standard type 
is principally in one direction — toward spareness of form 
and too great length in all sections. This characteristic- 
is most marked in the silver laced variety, having been 
introduced in it some years ago by the use of English birds 
of superior color but very much drawn out perpendicular- 



ly and wholly lacking in Wyandotte type. It is no use to 
show in good competition White Wyandottes that are not 
distinctly typical in form, for the class is one of the most 
popular, and strong classes come out in a great -many of 
the small shows. In the other varieties good color will 
greatly help a bird that is somewhat off in shape, and the 
classes, as a rule, are not so large that there are good- 
shaped birds good enough also in color to take all the hon- 
ors. Wherever the class is large, however, it usually takes 
a bird of good type to win high honors. 

Extreme length and looseness of plumage is oftener 
found in White Wyandottes than in other varieties. It 
came in vogue first through the preference of a leading 
judge of this variety for that type of feathering, and was 
afterward cultivated to a considerable extent to exagger- 
ate the difference between the White Wyandotte and the 
White Rock — to get away from Rock type. The proper 
length of plumage can be estimated best by observing how 
much of the thigh and hock show and whether the out- 
line surface of the plumage about the thigh follows to a 
degree the lines of body and thigh, or conceals these, and 
possibly also a part of the shank, and fluffs out around the 
thighs. The lines should always show as in the Standard 
illustrations — rather more than less. 




Center — Standard Wyandotte female shape. Left — A high-stationed, weedy hen; fine color but totally lacking in Wyandotte type. 
Bight — Large, coarse, loose-feathered Wyandotte female — a type to be avoided 



70 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




Center — Standard Rhode Island Red male shape, 
ing Standard requirements. His faults are plainly seen 
Island Red male often accepted as Standard. 



Left — Common type of male accepted by many breeders and some judges as meet- 
hen he is placed beside a bird of correct type. Right — hoarse type of Rhode 



JAVAS 

Disqualifications — Positive white in ear lobes; ab- 
sence of yellow color on bottoms of feet. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and type. So 
few Javas are shown that, as a rule, anything that has the 
other breed and variety qualifications can get a place 
regardless of these faults. There are however, a few Java 
breeders whose stock is of uncommonly good type, and in 
competition with these birds lacking in type will get only 
the leavings in the awards. 

AMERICAN DOMINIQUES 
Disqualifications — Any positive white in ear lobes. 
Most Common Defects — Lack of distinctive type. This 
is. a handicap in a class where birds of correct type 
are present, but does not count against a bird under other 
conditions. The most common type of Dominique sug- 
gests a poor Rose-Combed Plymouth Rock. The typical 
Dominique as shown in the Standard is a very different 
looking bird. 

RHODE ISLAND REDS 
Disqualifications — Positive white covering more than 
one-fourth of the ear lobe. 



Most Common Defects — Lack of distinctive type — ■ 
Outside of a few good strains anything and everything but 
correct type is common in this breed. The reasons for 
this are: first, that the breed is comparatively new and 
contains an extraordinary mixture of breeds in its an- 
cestry; and, next, that the type adopted for the breed is a 
very difficult one to get — at least at this stage of breed- 
ing. In trying to produce a long body with level line of 
back the tendency is to an attenuated, slab-sided style of 
bird, and when such birds are mated with more compact 
specimens to remedy that fault all kinds of undesired com- 
binations in form appear. The difference in type which 
the Standard shows between Plymouth Rock and Rhode 
Island Red is one that I think it will be found must be- 
made principally by the difference in the character of the 
plumage, and the carriage of the body, head and tail. The 
feathers of the Red should be shorter and harder, and it 
should habitually carry its head rather more forward, and 
its tail lower than the Plymouth Rock does. 

BUCKEYES 

Disqualifications — Positive white covering more than 
one-fourth of ear lobe. 




this characler 



■--Standard Rhode Island Red female shape. Left — Underdeveloped Red tv 
Red in the general-purpose class of fowls depends upon maintaining stor 



the "beefy" tende 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 




LIGHT BRAHMA COCK, HEN, COCKEREL AND PDLLET OF GOOD TYPE 

t. •. » T ? e J 1 " 1 ?, 8 . 'l! re l re , b , oth P° d S J.? nd . ard ™ od , e1 ?' though the cock has a tendency common in large fowls that are not perfectly well- 
knit to stand with the shoulders low. The hen is obviously one of the lug birds well over Standard weight tint Br-ihuu bidders like 

when they meet all other requirements The pullet appears a little fine to meet the requirement for massiveness in Brahmas, but she has 
more of it than the average Brahma pullet that wins at the winter sli us. 



Most Common Defect — Lack of breed type. The 
Buckeye is in origin a pea-combed Rhode Island Red. 
Because of the opposition of influential breeders of the 
other varieties of the breed admission to the Standard as 
a variety of the Reds was refused it. Then, in order to 
come in as a distinct breed, it had to have a Standard 
description for shape different from that of the Red. The 
form selected may be described as a gamey Rhode Island 
Red type — that is, one suggestive of a combination with 
the Pit Game. The type in a somewhat crude state is quite 
common among Reds as well as in Buckeyes, but well- 
finished models with good size and substance are com- 
paratively rare. Most birds are rather small and lacking 
in style. 

BRAHMAS 

Disqualifications — None for breed shape other than 
given under general disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and breed type 
and character; coarseness in large birds; long, loose, 
"cochin" feathering in stock bred to the modern style in 
color; short, close feathering in old-style-colored birds. 

Lack of style in Brahmas is mostly due to poor work 
in growing them, and is most noticeable in the young 
birds, and the shorter feathered ones. Many loose-feath- 
ered birds appear to have weight enough but to be rather 
short legged. In a class of Light Brahmas that draws 
from the best stocks, old birds must usually have good 
size and type to win, but young birds lacking in these 
respects may stand well if they have good color and their 
lines are good though not well filled out. In ordinary 
classes very poor birds are often placed, and in the absence 
of good ones may win high prizes. The observation above 
does not invariably apply, yet there are comparatively few 
Light Brahmas seen that are "antique" in one respect but 
not in the other. 

In Dark Brahmas few specimens of good size and 
good Brahma type are found. A good-colored bird of 
this variety is likely to win over anything else unless 
wholly lacking in type. 

COCHINS 

Disqualifications — None for breed shape other than 
given under general disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and type, and 
of profusion of plumage. 

In the stocks of our best breeders of Buff and Par- 
tridge Cochins, as bred and grown by them, these faults 
are rare. In White and Black Cochins, and in stocks of 



the two varieties named that are not highly bred and well 
grown, they are so prevalent that a really good bird seldom 
comes from such sources. At the few shows that quite 
regularly have good classes of Buff and Partridge Cochins 
it takes good birds to win. Elsewhere there is little 
competition and very ordinary or inferior birds may win 
blue ribbons. The White and Black Cochins at our best 
shows have for years been almost without exception de- 
ficient in size and poor in type. There is practically no 
competition in them, and anything shown that is free from 
disqualification usually gets a ribbon, though occasionally 
a judge will either withhold all awards from an unworthy 




STANDARD AND EXTREME TYPES IN COCHINS 

Above — Standard Buff Cochin male and female shape, 
low — A type very commonly accepted as ideal, but too lo 
the legs. It is this type chiefly that discredits the Cochins 



72 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




First Left — Standard Black Langshan female. Second — Standard Black Langshan male. Third and Fourth — Average good Langshan 
i's. Birds like these are commonly accepted as correct in type except when they come in competition with birds like the pair at the left. 



class or give low prizes. If a bird is not vulture hocked it 
is hardly possible to get too much feathers on a Cochin. 
LANGSHANS 

Disqualifications — Yellow skin; yellow on bottom of 
feet. 

This fault is a relic of the period when the Black 
Langshan and Black Cochin had much more in common 
than they now have. It is not as frequent as in earlier days, 
but the exhibitor of Langshans should always look for it, 
because it may appear at any time in stock regarded as 
free from it, and the judge always looks for it. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of American Standard 
type. 

In this breed the type is on a little different footing 
from that of most breeds in the Standard, because in Eng- 
land two very different types have been maintained, and 
while the American type is unlike either, English ideals 
and stock have had some influence here, mostly in 
directions which the Langshan exhibitor in this country 
must avoid if he would win in good company. The Lang- 
shans first known in England had very abundant flowing 
tails, and were rather low-set birds. The exhibition type 
that became popular there was extremely tall and stilted 
in appearance. The American Standard type is interme- 
diate — a tall bird without angularity, with a good deal of 
substance and stateliness, and at the same time more 
active and energetic than the average Brahma. 
LEGHORNS 

Disqualifications — Red in lobes of cockerels and 
pullets over more than one-third their surface. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of sizej wrong carriage 
of tail : wrong shape of back at saddle; too low station; red in 



ear lobes. In some varieties narrow sickles and coverts. 

The general lack of size in Leghorns is due to the 
absence of weight requirements for them until 1915, and to 
the popularity here of a very fine graceful type of Leg- 
horn. The reaction from this came because, as a result 
of the preference for this type in the showroom, the Leg- 
horn was being damaged in utility qualities and was losing 
prestige on that account. Many specimens under Standard 
weight are still shown, and with quality in other sections 
win, but judges pay much more attention to size thaji they 
used to, and dainty little birds do not win if birds approx- 
imating Standard weight are at all representative of good 
Leghorn type. 

High carriage of the tail is very persistent in Leg- 
horns, because it is "natural," and until comparatively 
recent times was considered a desirable characteristic. 
Comparatively few Leghorns habitually carry their tails 
as low as the Standard requires. Consequently the practice 
of bending the tail feathers of exhibition birds to give 
the tail the desired position has become common. The 
method of doing this is described in the next chapter. 

The shape of the back of a bird at the saddle, or 
cushion, is much influenced by the carriage of the tail, 
and the fullness of the plumage in front of it. A high car- 
riage of the tail makes some angle here, and if the plumage 
lacks fullness the appearance of angularity in the line of 
the back and tail is increased, and the back also appears 
much narrower at the rear than farther forward. All these 
faults can be improved by bending the feathers in the 
manner described in the next chapter. 

Too low and too high station are probably equally 
common in Leghorns, but as an extremely high-stationed 




Left — A pair of Black Minorcas of good Standard type. Right— Pair of Minorcas of general good quality; winners at a good 
show, but lacking the symmetry and finish in form of the pair beside them 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 




Center — Standard Leghorn male shape. Left — Low-set, undersized, poorly developed Leghorn male, vet capable of winning in some 
competitions. Right — A common Leghorn type that, in the Whites especially, brings disappointment to hopeful exhibitors — too high sta- 



tioned, coarse, lacking the neat, 



aetrical curves of the 



bird is apt to lack the gracefulness sought in this breed, 
while those a little low on the legs generally have 
some grace of their own, if not in just the type the 
Standard demands, we commonly find low-set birds more 
numerous in shows than leggy ones. It is often stated 
that the head and appurtenances count for one-third (ap- 
proximately) in a Leghorn, and great emphasis is placed 
on quality in that section. As Leghorns are judged now 
at the best shows, I do not think it would be possible to 
demonstrate from the awards of judges that head counted 
as much as type. A number of our best judges of this 
breed frequently show that they are reluctant to give a 
high prize to a bird that does not at sight impress one who 
knows as of good Leghorn type, and observation of their 
awards when birds faulty in type but good in other re- 
spects are competing indicates that type carries more 
weight with them than anything else. 

Superior Leghorn type is quite general in the best 
stocks of Brown and White Leghorns, but not common in 
other varieties. Black Leghorns are usually uniform in 
type but old style. In Buff Leghorns there is considerable 
diversity of type and rarely the finish in males that is 
seen in good birds of the other three varieties. Any good- 
colored bird with a fair comb has a chance of being well 
placed in good competition in this variety. 



Narrow sickles and coverts are common in both White 
and Buff Leghorns. Few males in either of these varieties 
have as well-furnished tails as the average Brown or 
Black Leghorn. Some exhibitors pull the sickles of cock- 
erels when they are too narrow, expecting the next 
pair to have more width, as the tendency is to a wider 
and longer feather in each succeeding molt. 

Red in the lobes and white in the faces of old birds, 
particularly old cocks, are very common. As a rule, ex- 
perienced exhibitors do not show birds in which such 
faults are present to a degree that calls for a heavy 
cut, and makes their removal or concealment difficult, 
though perhaps possible if they choose to take the trouble 
necessary to do a highly finished job. Old males with a 
great deal of red in the ear lobes are sometimes shown 
with no effort made to remove or conceal it, if they are 
otherwise good enough to have a chance of a place. Ex- 
hibitors will take chances on this if they are short on old 
males in every way fit, because that situation is so likely 
to affect their competitors too, that the chances of win- 
ning with a bird of this description are much better in a 
cock class than in any other. 

MINORCAS 

Disqualifications — More than one-third of the surface 
of the ear lobe red. 




©enter — Standard Leghorn female shape. Left — Underdeveloped Leghorn female, lacking in vitality. Right — Coarse Legho 
approaching Minorca lines, yet without the Bymmetry of a Minorca of finished type 



74 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




Left — Pair of Standard Bli 



es the trouble 



Most Common Defects— Lack of size; Leghorn rather 
than Minorca lines in medium to small birds; coarseness 
in large birds; wrong carriage; excessively large combs 
with a pronounced tendency to lop and twist. 

The typical Minorca is a big, strong, rugged bird; 
conspicuous for length of body and back; rather angular 
looking as compared with a Leghorn, yet very sym- 
metrical. The line of the back should be nearly straight, 
but not level— instead the shoulders should be carried 
well up, giving quite a slant to the tail. Large combs are 
required, but it should be understood that this, means large 
as combs run in this country where the general tendency 
is to a small, neat comb. The Minorca comb should be 
larger in proportion to the size of the bird than that of 
the Leghorn, yet not so large that it is obviously a burden 
to the bird, and with size it must have fineness of texture, 
symmetrical outline, and be straight and strong and firm 
on the head of the single-combed male, and in the female 
have the loop over the beak and the turn to one side of 
the head smooth and even, and in rose combs must have 
better shape and texture than is found in large combs in 
other rose-combed varieties. 

There are few breeds in the Standard that require as 
skillful handling to fit for exhibition and to keep in con- 
dition as the Minorca. The comb is so large that high 
temperatures and rich feed — as perhaps required for con- 
ditioning in other respects— tend to grow it beyond the 
limits at which it retains good shape. A bird going a little 
out of condition will have the comb wilt in a manner most 
discouraging to the exhibitor. The result of the difficulty 
of showing Minorcas in perfect condition is that the lead- 
ing exhibitors are past masters in fitting and showing 



them, and the novice who lacks their expertness will do 
well to look for shows where he can compete with men 
little more expert in fitting than himself until he has ac- 
quired some proficiency in the art. 

BLACK SPANISH 

Disqualifications — Red in the white face, except in 
small amount above the eye; puffing of the white face 
which obstructs the sight. 

Most Common Defects — Puffing, wrinkling and dis- 
coloration of the white face, due to exposure, to injuries 
and to birds going out of condition. 

The white face which is the characteristic feature of 
the Spanish is an abnormal development of the enamel- 
like skin of the ear lobe, and is subject to all the faults 
and defects of white ear lobes in exaggerated forms. In 
addition, the face contains more or less numerously, 
feathers and down which must be removed before the 
bird is exhibited. 

For nearly twenty years beginning about the middle 
nineties the Black Spanish were almost unknown in Amer- 
ican shows. Of late years interest in them appears to be 
reviving, but many of the best specimens shown here are 
brought from England. Outside of the stocks that are 
maintained by frequent importations, the Spanish shown 
in this country generally have moderate face development, 
and very ordinary quality in type and color. One can show 
mediocre birds and win anywhere but at a first-class show, 
and sometimes even at the leading shows. 

BLUE ANDALUSIANS 
Disqualifications — Red covering one-third of the ear 
lobe. • 




DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



75 



Most Common Defects — Lack of distinctive type. The 
Andalusian is in type intermediate between the Leghorn 
and the Minorca. Small birds tend to Leghorn, large 
•birds to Minorca type. In ordinary competition weakness 
of type does not seriously handicap a good-colored bird. 
In large and strong classes type counts for as much as 
color. Birds lacking in type have little chance for a place. 

ANCONAS 

Disqualifications — Ear lobes more than one-half red. 

Most Common Defects — The shape description in the 
Standard is practically identical with the description of 
shape of Leghorns; but the ideal illustrations for the 
breeds are not identical, the Ancona being somewhat 
lacking in the finish and style of the Leghorn. The illus- 
trations show much of the old-style characteristics 
mentioned as common in Black Leghorns. The situation is 
perhaps more aptly described as a case where improvement 
in color has delayed refinement in shape. The result is 
that at the present time we can hardly say that lack of 
Leghorn style is a fault in an Ancona, yet in view of what 
we see in the development of other breeds, it would ap- 
pear that when an Ancona breeder shows birds of first 
quality in color, having the style of the best Leghorns. 




STANDARD SPECKLED SUSSEX 

that will become the style for Anconas and the type that now 
is accepted as correct then will be regarded as defective. 

DORKINGS 

Disqualifications — None for shape other than those 
mentioned under general disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and type. Out- 
side of the stocks of a few leading exhibitors, most of the 
Dorkings seen here are comparatively poor to very poor 
type, more suggestive of beefy, low-set Leghorn type than 
of the typical Dorking. True type, always accompanied 
by good size, is the most important thing to consider in 
Dorking competition. It is the first point the judge con- 
siders, and a bird of good type has to be very bad indeed, 
in other characteristics, to lose to one of inferior type 
under a good Dorking judge. In the most popular variety, 
the Silver Gray, one who has not good typical Dorkings 
should keep away from shows where the breeders of high 
repute exhibit. So few of the other varieties are shown 
that almost anything that will pass for a Dorking can 
win unless the exhibitor happens to run into one of the 
small strings of good-colored Dorkings occasionally ap- 
pearing at a large show. White Dorkings of good size, 
type and vigor are rarely seen. 

SUSSEX 
Disqualifications — More than one-third of the surface 
of the ear lobes white; yellow legs or skin. 




STANDARD SILVER GRAY DORKINGS 

Most Common Defects — Sussex as introduced here 
cannot be said to have any conspicuous shape defects. 
Few birds not of good size and type have been imported 
and the breed is largely in the hands of skilled breeders. 

HOUDANS 

Disqualifications — None except as noted under gen- 
eral disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Shortness of body, with type 
and carriage too much resembling the Polish. The body 
of the Houdan should be very much like that of the 
Dorking; a little shorter in the back and fuller in the 
breast. 

CREVECOEURS AND LA FLECHE 

So few of these French breeds are shown that there 
is practically never any competition in them, and any- 
thing shown competes in the "Any other variety class," 
which, as a rule, is made up of breeds in a crude state, 

FAVEROLLES 

Disqualifications — None in addition to those given 
under general disqualifications. 

Most Serious Defects — Lack of "finish." The greater 
number of Faverolles seen here are of fair to good 
size and type, but look rather "rough hewn" as compared 
with breeds that have been longer bred for exhibition. 
To some extent this is in lack of conditioning and fitting. 

ORPINGTONS 

Disqualifications — White covering more than one-third 
of the ear lobes; yellow beaks, or skin. 

The general disqualifications for wrong color of 
shanks and feet include yellow shanks in this breed. Con- 
sistency would require that, on the same principle that 
wrong color of beak and skin disqualifies in an Orpington, 
beaks and skin other than yellow should disqualify in the 
American breeds. The Standard is not always consistent 




STANDARD MOTTLED HOUDANS 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 





Center — Standard Orpington male shape. l^eff — Short-legged 
varieties. Right — Big-boned, high-stationed Orpington. Many spec 
popularity of the breed. 

about such matters because of differences in circumstances 
relating to the breeds, or difference in the occasion for 
emphasizing a characteristic when the Standard was adopt- 
ed. When the standards for Plymouth Rocks and Wyan- 
dottes were made, it was commonly assumed that the 
color of beak, skin and shanks, was invariably uniform. 
The fact is that they are commonly but not invariably the 
same and, in particular, a leg that will pass as yellow, 
though not a good rich yellow, is quite frequently found 
with a flesh-colored skin and beak. The beak in an Amer- 
ican breed would be cut for color, but the Standard paid 
no attention to color of skin. When the Orpingtons were 
first introduced many of the Buffs were much better color 
than most of our Buff Rocks, and in consequence they 
were freely used to improve Rock color, and crossbred 
birds were exhibited in whichever class the color of legs 
qualified them for. Many birds were of course not of 
good yellow or white or pinkish white. So to make the 
distinction as emphatic as possible Orpington breeders 
made the requirements for beak and skin color stronger 
than in any other breed. 

Most Common Defects — Extreme variations from 
Orpington type. 

Outside of the breeders whom constant keen com- 



irpington male, most common in Blacks but frequently found in all 
lens of both these off-types win, but that does not contribute to the 

petition keeps close to type, breeders of Orpingtons may 
be divided into two groups: those who pay no attention 
to type, and produce undersized, weedy-looking birds, 
and those who exaggerate the type, making a very short- 
legged, loose-feathered bird. The Orpington is a neater 
type than the Plymouth Rock, and both shorter on the leg 
and more profusely feathered, but the standard weights 
are only a half pound more — except in pullets, where the 
difference is a pound. If one will consider that this dif- 
ference in weight is a little over five per cent he will see 
that even allowing for longer plumage, ten per cent more 
fullness of form than is seen in the typical Rock is ample. 
Many breeders seeking to make the types distinctly dif- 
ferent get Orpingtons with lines going far beyond this. 

CORNISH 

Disqualifications — None except as given under gen- 
eral disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of type, the lines gen- 
erally failing to reach the type, but in the Dark variety 
where good type is oftenest found a considerable num- 
ber of birds appear of exaggerated type. This fault is far 
less objectionable than the other. In fact, many judges 
favor the exaggerated type, and the disadvantage of it 
is not in the showroom, but in the fact that the very coarse 




amm 



Center — Standard Or 




DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



17 




W^j • 




Left- 


-Standard Dark Cornish male and female. Right — Dark Co 


h birds a 


re very good in color and may lie described as fine in type 


l lie othei 


type and even fair color are present. 



birds as in the other large breeds are apt to be indifferent 
producers and inferior in quality of flesh. 

POLISH 

Disqualifications — None except as given in general 
disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Faults in crests as already 
noted. 

HAMBURGS 

Disqualifications — Red covering more than one-third 
of the surface of the ear lobes; absence of distinctive male 
plumage in males, making them "hen feathered" like Se- 
bright Bantams. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and poor type. 
These faults are largely due to the fact that Hamburgs 
are largely in the hands of people who are not so situated 
that they can give them the range conditions that would 
give vitality and vigor. The preference for refined type 
also seeems to work against the development of good 
size, especially in the penciled varieties. A Hamburg that 
is poor in color has little chance of a place in competition, 
and in large classes it takes nice type to win. But where 
competition is weak, and really elegant birds not pre- 
sent, almost anything in the general range of type found 
in the breed will pass as good shape, provided the bird 
carries itself well and has attractive manner. 

REDCAPS 

Disqualifications — Ear lobes all white. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and of quality 
in general. Redcaps have for nearly a quarter of a century 
been unknown in most American shows. 



type widely accepted as Standa 
have little chance of a place \ 



BUTTERCUPS 

This is a non-Standard breed in which there has been 
a great deal of interest for the last ten years. Its recog- 
nition in the Standard has been delayed by the confusion 
of ideas of breeders as to the desired pattern in color. The 
breed is of the general Leghorn type, probably running 
a little larger than average Leghorns, though there is not 
much difference in size as observed. The original breed 
peculiarity, from which the name is in part derived, is 
the cup-shaped comb. 

Most Common Defects — Poor combs; undersize with 
rather delicate type. The last fault appears to come from 
the mixture of Golden Penciled Hamburg blood in an 
effort to introduce precise color markings. 

CAMPINES 

Disqualifications — More than one-half of the ear lobes 
red. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of alertness in carriage 
and manner, due to lack of vitality. 

EXHIBITION GAMES AND GAME BANTAMS 

Disqualifications — Combs and wattles in cocks not 

dubbed; duckfoot. 

Most Common Defects — Oversize, with coarseness. 

lack of good carriage and "station." 

BLACK SUMATRAS 

Disqualifications — All white ear lobes. 

Most Common Defects — No really marked faults of 
shape are observed in the few Sumatras seen; on the con- 
trary, most of them are conspicuously nice in type, and 
a good proportion remarkably attractive in that respect. 




Left — Standard Silver Campi: 



male and female. Right — Coarse type of Campine quite prevalent a few years ago and still 
shown by some breeders 



78 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



MALAYS AND MALAY BANTAMS 
Disqualifications— None except as noted under gen- 
eral disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of breed character — 
if that is to be considered a defect. The Standard calls 
for a head with a "fierce, cruel expression." The ideal 
type -is a bird of great height and reach, very muscular, 
and with plumage so hard and close that the muscularity 
is made very conspicuous. The greatest development 
along these lines is obtained by the English breeders of 
Malays. With the slight interest taken in them in this 
country a bird that in England is regarded as quite de- 
ficient in type and characteristic expression appears here 
as meeting the requirements very well. 

SEBRIGHT BANTAMS 

Disqualifications — Neck hackles in males coming down 
on the shoulders; sickles extending more than an inch and 
a half beyond the main tail feathers. 

Most Common Defects — The above faults in less de- 
gree than that which calls for disqualification. The hen- 
feathered character in males is abnormal, and is apparent- 
ly attended in the greater number of cases by a degree of 
sterility. Hence, comparatively few males are perfectly 
hen feathered, and many of those which appear so when 
shown have had the growth of hackle and tail feathers 
carefully regulated to make them as near right as possible 
when the birds are shown. 

ROSE COMB BANTAMS 

Disqualifications — None except as under general dis- 
qualifications. 

Most Common Defects — None. The Blacks which are 
bred principally are largely in the hands of fanciers 
who appreciate and cultivate the type. Consequently, 
while there is a normal amount of variation from Stand- 
ard tiype, few birds that do not appear quite typical in the 
absence of better specimens are seen. 

BOOTED BANTAMS 
Disqualifications — Absence of vulture hocks. 
Most Common Defects — Lack of "booting' - — The 
feathering on the feet is one of somewhat different char- 
acter from that of the large Asiatics, the largest feathers 
resembling the flight feathers of the wing. 

BRAHMA BANTAMS 

Disqualifications — Same as for large Brahmas. 

Most Common Defects — Oversize; lack of Brahma 
type. This breed of bantams is comparatively new and 
a large proportion run considerably over Standard weight. 
In the birds of Standard weight it is difficult to secure 
at the same time diminutive size and the proportions of 
the massive large Brahma. Few specimens show the de- 
sired combination, and as nearly all are deficient in 
shape the awards turn more on color. As a breeder, one 
interested in Brahma Bantams should work constantly 
for typical form, but as an exhibitor he is not under pre- 
sent conditions at all handicapped by a lack of it. Birds 
that are approximately of Standard weight and fair in 
color as compared with the large varieties will hold their 
own in any competition. 

COCHIN BANTAMS 

Disqualifications — The same as for large Cochins ex- 
cept that stiff hock feathers do not disqualify. 

Most Common Defects — Oversize; lack of Cochin 
typ°; stiff hock feathers. The first two faults are less com- 
mon and less marked in Cochin than in Brahma Bantams, 
for the breed is much older, and many breeders have pro- 



duced good miniature Cochins. But the Buff and White 
varieties in particular are quite popular with amateurs, 
and as a result there is always considerable stock bred 
and shown that is badly lacking in type. Many breeders 
who have shown with some success, and produce pretty 
good colored birds, seem to have little appreciation of 
correct type. So we have here again one of the cases 
where it takes good type generally to win in strong class- 
es, but very ordinary birds may win at good shows if a 
first-class breeder does not happen to be showing. 

JAPANESE BANTAMS 
Disqualifications — None except as given under gen- 
eral disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — None of importance. The 
type was well fixed when the breed was introduced and 
it has been kept mostly by fanciers. 

POLISH BANTAMS 
Disqualifications and defects as for large Polish. 

MILLE FLEUR BOOTED BANTAMS 

Disqualifications and defects as for bearded and booted 
breeds. 

SILKIES 

Disqualifications — Lack of the "silky" character in 
plumage; lack of crest; lack of fifth toe; vulture hocks. 

Common Defects — Wrong character of feathering (ten- 
dency of the plumage to web as in the normal feather),, 
the silky character not being absent yet not being well 
developed. Interest in Silkies is so limited, that provided 
a bird is not disqualified it can get a place in the winnings 
in any ordinary class. 

SULTANS 

Disqualifications — Beak not white nor light flesh col- 
or; red in face; lack of vulture hocks; shanks not feath- 
ered their full length. 

This breed is an eccentric combination of superficial 
feather developments. 

Most Common Defects — Poor development in the 
superficial feather characters, absence of which constitutes 
a disqualification. Sultans are so rare that, as a rule, any 
bird not disqualified is placed if classification is given 
the breed. 

FRIZZLES 

Disqualifications — None additional to general dis- 
qualifications which may apply. 

Most Common Defects — Limited extent and degree 
of the outward curvature of the feathers, near the tip, 
which gives the frizzled appearance. 

COLOR FAULTS— WHITE VARIETIES 

There are white varieties in the following breeds: Ply- 
mouth Rock, Wyandotte, Rhode Island (non-Standard), 
Cochin, Langshan, Leghorn, Minorca, Dorking, Orping- 
ton, Polish, Hamburg, Houdan, Faverolles (non-Standard), 
Exhibition Game and Game Bantam, Rose Comb Bantam, 
Booted Bantam, Cochin Bantam, Japanese Bantam and 
Polish Bantam. 

These varieties upon a critical examination of color 
are found to differ considerably in purity of color, though 
the Standard specification is the same for all — pure white. 
In selecting white birds for exhibition the same faults 
are to be sought in all varieties, but the prevalence and the 
degree or extent of fault may differ greatly. In general, 
color quality is determined by two things. First, by the 
keenness of competition in a variety, Second, by the time 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



T) 



that it has been carefully bred for purity of color. With- 
out competition color does not become highly improved, 
no matter how long the variety is bred. 

In examining the birds for color faults it must be 
assumed that any fault which occurs in that color may 
appear in any bird of that color. The common faults 
in white plumage are the appearance of traces of black 
and red, and the existence at some times of a superabun- 
dance (from the standpoint of purity of white) of oil in 
the plumage. The oil is removable by bleaching pro- 
cesses, the color is not. 

Traces or splashes of black or gray are oftenest found 
in the hackles and tails of white birds, but feathers more 




COMMON FAULTS IN WHITE PLUMAGE 

or less marked with black may appear anywhere in the 
plumage. Red or yellow-splashed feathers are not as com- 
mon but are often found. A residue of red pigment in the 
plumage seems to have a tendency to give a faint tinge 
to the surface of the feathers of a section, and particularly 
on the hackles, backs and saddles of males, while black 
tends more to appear in ticks, faint stripes or patches. 
What is on the surface can, of course, be seen without 
"digging into" the feathers, but it may happen that the 
faults are all in the undercolor. The fact can only be ascer- 
tained by systematically working all through the plumage 
with the fingers in much the same way that the head of a 
person infested with head lice is examined for those para- 
sites. The illustration is not an elegant one but the motion 
employed is somewhat similar and the same thorough- 
ness of search is necessary. An expert holds the bird in 
one hand and systematically parts the feathers with the 
lingers of the other. One green at the work will often 
find it better to have someone hold the bird for him. 

Disqualifications — The common formula in the Stand- 
ard for the statement of disqualifications in white color 
is "feathers other than white." This is used for the white 
varieties of all breeds but the Plymouth Rock and Cornish, 
for which the formula is "red, buff or positive black in 
any part of the plumage." The latter form is apparently 
a survival of the period before the attempt was made to 
give the standards as much uninformity as possible. The 
form more generally used is better as it leaves no doubt 
about the intent of the Standard to disqualify for any 
other color than white and brassiness. In a strictly literal 



interpretation of the Standard, White Plymouth Rocks 
could not be disqualified for gray or blue or slate color, 
or any appearance of black but positive black; nor would 
any of the color disqualifications apply to the Polish and 
Games where the disqualification is omitted — erroneously, 
no doubt. It can hardly be questioned however, by anyone 
familiar with the methods of Standard making and the 
history of the revisions since 1898, that the intention is 
to apply the rule "feathers other than white" to all white 
varieties. The judges commonly so construe it, 
and the wise exhibitor removes foreign color before 
sending his white birds to a show. 

Most Serious Defects — Brassiness. This is most 
frequently found in males, and in the characteristic male 
plumage — the hackle, the back, extending also to the wing 
bow and wing front, the saddle and perhaps also the sickles 
and tail coverts. Brassiness is usually strongest across 
the middle of the back and wings and may be quite mark- 
ed there when little is present elsewhere. 

The instructions to judges prescribe a cut of 1 to 2 
points for brassiness in each section where it appears. A 
section in scoring a bird is an item or group of items which 
are cut as one in scoring. Thus the comb is a section and 
the eyes are a section. The hackle is a section and the 
back including the saddle is a section. The wings are a 
section — not each wing a separate section. If a bird is 
brassy from neck to tail the minimum cuts would set a 
bird so far back that it would have to be about perfect in 
every other respect to have any chance of a place. At a 
comparison show a plainly brassy bird gets no consid- 
eration at all. 

Creaminess — This refers to the natural tint given feath- 
ers by the oil in them. Feathers may appear as yellow 
from this cause as from brassiness, but creaminess can be 
remedied, and usually disappears at some time after the 
feathers are grown. Creaminess does not disqualify, but 
pronounced creaminess may be cut to 14 points in each sec- 
tion, and as it is usually found all over the bird it is quite 
as much of a handicap as brassiness. In the statement in the 
Standard in regard to cutting for creaminess, it is noted 
that the cuts do not apply where "creamy white is spec- 
ified." The only case under this exception is the Pekin 
Duck. 

In examining birds for creaminess particular attention 
should be paid to the quill. And in distinguishing between 
brassiness and creaminess it should be observed that brass- 
iness is most pronounced where the feathers are exposed, 
but creaminess is most marked in the undercolor. A bird 
that has a good white quill — especially in the large quill 
feathers — will generally, after the feathers are full grown, 
appear perfectly white until compared with a washed and 
bleached bird. 

Color Defects in Shanks and Beaks — In white varieties 
there are three different combinations of plumage with 
shank color. The most common is white plumage with 
yellow shanks, beak and skin. This is required in all 
varieties but the White Dorking and White Minorca, 
which have what appears as the natural combination — -white 
or pinkish white; and the White Polish and White 
Hamburg, which have dark shanks and beaks. In all cases 
but the Minorca, the color of shank and beak for the breed 
has been determined for the colored variety or varieties, 
and the effort has been made to make the color of the 
shank of the white variety conform to that for the breed. 
The usual result is that the shanks and beaks of white 
fowls are pale compared with those of the colored vari- 
eties of the same breed. At the same time, and especially 



80 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



in the more numerously bred white birds with yellow 
legs, many specimens are found with pure white plumage 
and good, rich yellow legs. The occurrence of this com- 
bination, and the method of its production can be best 
understood when it is noted that the case parallels that of 
the combination of white plumage with black or slate 
legs, and when it is also considered that the scales on the 
shanks and feet are modified feathers (or vice versa, if 
one chooses to take it that way), and that the distribution 
of scales on the leg, like the distribution of feathers else- 
where on the bird, is not uniform over the entire sur- 
face but in places the skin is bare. 

In a white fowl with dark shanks we have a phenom- 
enon similar but opposite in form or arrangement, to a 
black fowl with a white crest, or a dark fowl with a white 
hackle. The shank takes its color 
partly from the scales and partly from 
the skin, which is in some places bare 
and shows through the scales, and in 
some does not show through them at 
all. In just the same way the scales 
on the shanks of a white fowl may be 
yellow, and — in fact — they must be 
yellow if the leg is to be naturally a 
rich yellow. If they are not they tone 
down the yellow of the skin, for it is 
seen through a white scale, not 
through a yellow scale. And if 
the skin itself is pale the result is a 
very pale leg. When we breed rich 
yellow legs on white fowls we are 
making the same combination as if 
we breed a white fowl with a yellow 
hackle. When breeders of Standard 
poultry generally, appreciate this fact 
and select accordingly in breeding 
there will be a great many more birds 
with good color in the legs in breeds 
and varieties where now it is common- 
ly held that the combination is "unnat- 
ural" and cannot be made with high 
quality in the unlike colored sections. 

In the white varieties of nearly 
all the breeds color in the shanks and 
beaks is usually inferior to color in the 

shanks and beaks of the colored varieties of the 
same breeds. Consequently, in judging white varieties al- 
lowance is usually made for weakness of color of shank 
as correlated with white plumage. Not only so. but good 
strong color in yellow legs of white fowls is so easily 
made by artificial methods that judges, as a rule, do not 
attach anything like as much value to leg color as the nov- 
ice usually does. Probably nine-tenths of the beginners 
with Standard poultry regard good color of legs as a spe- 
cial merit, and the lack of it as a very serious fault. Judges 
and old breeders like good leg color when they can get it 
with other good points, but extra-good leg color does not 
count much to the credit of a specimen generally inferior. 

COLOR FAULTS— BLACK VARIETIES 

There are black varieties in the following breeds: Wy- 
andotte, Java, Cochin, Leghorn, Minorca, Spanish, Orping- 
ton, Hamburg, La Fleche. Crevecoeur, Exhibition Game 
and Game Bantam, Rose Comb Bantam, Cochin Bantam. 
Japanese. The Standard (modern) Black Java. is substan- 
tially a Black Plymouth Rock, the differences in type be- 
ing largely due to difference in character of plumage. 



The common Standard formula used in describing 
black color is "lustrous greenish black." In a few cases 
this is varied to "lustrous, or rich black with greenish 
sheen." The undercolor of black fowls is variously de- 
scribed as black, "dull black," or "dark slate." There is 
quite as wide range of shades in black as in white. 

Disqualifications — There is not the general uniform- 
ity of statement in regard to disqualifications in black 
color in the different varieties as was noted in color dis- 
qualifications for white varieties. Yet it will hardly be 
questioned that the intent is to make the rules for color 
disqualifications as uniform as is consistent with existing 
differences in the improvement in color in the several vari- 
eties. The best formula, and least open to dispute, is 
"feathers other than black in any part of the plumage," 




COMMON FAULTS IX BLACK HACKLES, WINGS AND TAILS 

this being qualified in the case of certain varieties by the 
statements of the precise amount of white which is tol- 
erated, without disqualification, in certain places in some 
black varieties. These exceptions are: In Black Wyan- 
dottes, Black Langshans and Black Orpingtons, white ex- 
tending more than half an inch; in Black Cochins and Co- 
chin Bantams, white foot and toe feathering; in Black Mi- 
norcas, La Fleche, Crevecoeurs and Rose Comb Black 
Bantams, white extending more than one-half inch — two 
or more feathers tipped or edged with positive white. 

The white in black plumage appears mostly either at 
the top of the flight feathers, at the base of flight and tail 
feathers and at the base of hackle feathers near the 
junction of neck and back. Near the tips of the flight 
white often appears in only one or two feathers in each 
wing, and is not always a positive white, but is a shade of 
gray. Most judges do not disqualify for this unless the 
spot is quite white and also comes under the provision as 
to extent of white calling for disqualification. White here 
is often temporary — due to lack of prime condition. White 
at the base of the feathers is usually permanent and stead- 
ily increases with each annual molt. Either a single feather, 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



81 



a few feathers or a large group of feathers, may show white 
at the base, and it may vary from a very little white next 
the skin to several inches. Where as extensive as that it 
soon shows on the surface, but a great deal of white may 
exist without appearing on the surface. The defective 
feathers, if in the soft plumage and not too numerous, can 
be removed. Small patches of white may be stained or 
dyed black. Occasionally considerable faults are so treat- 
ed, but while that may escape the notice of a judge, 
it is apt to be discovered if the occasion awses to compare 
the bird with others section by section, in a good light. 

Most Common Defects — White or gray when not a 
disqualification; purple barring; reddish or "rusty" tinge; 
lack of green sheen. 




COMMON FAULTS IN BLACK BODY PLUMAGE 
White in undercolor and on edges, making the "frosting" 
which often mars the appearance of a black section, especially 
on body and breast of males having the black-white combination. 

White or gray when not a disqualification is cut in 
each section where it appears at least l /2 point and up to 
the limits of points alloted to color in each section. This 
gives a judge a great deal of latitude, and most judges are 
rather severe on this defect. 

Purple barring is an almost universal fault in black 
color. The commonly accepted theory is that it results 
from an excess of pigmentation, but some breeders main- 
tain that it is itself a character — that the barring is not 
dependent upon the amount of pigment, but may occur in 
one bird with much less intense pigmentation than another 
bird that is free from it. The number of black fowls that 
upon close examination are found absolutely free from 
purple barring is very small. The usual presumption is 
that a bird has more or less of it. The question is whether 
it is bad enough and found in enough sections to put the 
bird hopelessly out of consideration in competition. Faint 
purple barring is sometimes seen only when the bird is 
held in the right light to show it up. The barring is most 
prevalent on the neck, back and tail, but may be found 
nearly all over the bird if every part is turned to a light 
that will bring it out. It is usually more pronounced in 
males than in females. It can be- largely, if not entirely, 
reduced for show purposes by the methods which are 
described in the next chapter. 

A reddish or rusty tinge in black color is usually found 
in birds of different breeding — birds of stock that has 
been bred with no attention to the tendency of red to in- 



crease in it until the plumage is in places, and perhaps 
nearly all over, a mixture of dull black and dark brown- 
ish red. It is useless to attempt to show such specimens 
in competition with black birds for they look very dingy 
by comparison. 

The green sheen on black which is so much desired, 
and so seldom found in perfection, appears to be in part 
produced by the structure of the feathers and in part by 
the character or condition of the pigment in them. Its 
exact nature has not been determined. It appears to be 
found only in association with good black color, and to 
be incompatible with much purple barring, but to be al- 
ways present with good black, or in the absence of purple 
barring. In any ordinary class of black fowls a moderate 
green sheen will pass as good; indeed, it will appear very 
good unless it has to compete with a bird with a phenom- 
enally deep and brilliant green sheen. 

Color Defects in Shanks and Beaks — In the black vari- 
eties of yellow-skinned breeds — Wyandotte, Leghorn and 
Cochin — clean yellow legs are rare. The shank is usually 
quite dark — a blackish horn color on the upper part of 
the front where the scales are largest and heaviest, shad- 
ing through a greenish willow to a dusky yellow, on the 
lower sides of the shank and the underside of feet and 
toes. The yellower the legs the better, but in the 
scarcity of good yellow legs, weakness in this point 
rarely counts against an otherwise good bird, especially if 
where the foot is yellow it is a good yellow. In these 
breeds the bill should be yellow or yellow shaded with 
black. In the Black Java the legs are nearly black and the 
bill black. In all the other varieties the shanks are either 
black or very dark. No attempt is made to make the color 
of the shank and beak conform to that of the varieties of 
the same breed which have white or pinkish-white skin 
farther than that where the skin is bare on the feet it 
must be of the color of the skin of the body. Hence, 
while in the few black varieties of yellow-legged breeds the 
preference is given (other things being equal) to the 
yellowest legs, in the other varieties the black leg is pre- 
ferred. 

COLOR FAULTS— BUFF VARIETIES 

There are buff varieties in the following breeds: 
Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, Cochin, Leghorn, Minorca 
and Buff Cochin Bantam; and buff laced varieties in the 
Polish and Polish Bantams. 

In the solid buff varieties what is required is a "rich 
golden buff" uniform all over the bird. In the buff laced 
varieties the plumage is a rich buff laced or edged with 
a paler buff. This color pattern has the rather unique 
distinction of being the only common and popular one in 
which no color fault has ever been made a disqualification. 
The defects in it have always been treated in the Standard 
as serious defects — but not as disqualifications. I have 
known instances, however, where judges applied general 
formulas for color disqualifications to buff birds, and I im- 
agine there have been many such, and also that many ex- 
hibitors in s'electing have supposed that the common rules 
about foreign color in plumage applied. 

Most Common Defects — -Lack of uniformity in shade 
of buff; presence of black or white, or of both. 

There is little to choose between these faults. Black 
and white, if quite strongly marked, greatly mar the ap- 
pearance of a buff bird even in the eyes of a novice not 
critical about uniformity in shade of buff. The presence 
of these foreign colors seems to him a much more serious 
fault than any unevenness of shade which he observes. 



82 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



But to the critical breeder and judge of buff color gen- 
eral evenness and soundness of color with a little black 
or white, or black and white, in the sections where these 
faults are most apt to appear is much more to be desired 
than absolute freedom from foreign color; for lack of un- 
iformity of buff color spoils the appearance of the whole 
bird; while at the minimum at which it is comparatively easy 
t.. keep them black and white appear as mealiness in the 
flight feathers, where they are more or less concealed. 
Even a slight peppering of black, or a little mealiness on 
the coverts or in other sections may be tolerated rather 
than the presence of several shades of buff in the differ- 
ent sections of the plumage, and sometimes on the same 
feather. 

Lack of uniformity of buff color in different sections 
has been in a marked degree eliminated from the best 
strains of nearly all buff varieties. A class of buffs at any 
good show now usually presents a very pleasing uniformity 




buff color, c 


me even 


shade 


tin 


shades in dil 


terent s< 


.-,i ins I 


uid 



ughout. Right- 



of shade, when seen from a little distance. But compara- 
tively few of the most even looking birds appear sound 
in color when closely inspected, and it seems obvious to 
anyone familiar with the behavior of buff color in repro- 
duction that the most common cause of such unevenness 
of color is the mating of specimens too far apart in shade 
of color — not what is commonly considered an extreme 
mating, but still with more difference between the colors 
of the parents than is desirable if soundness of color is to 
be obtained. In general, there is a tendency for the light 
and dark shades of parents that were themselves .quite uni- 
form in general shade of color to take the form of lacing 
— a light lacing on a darker buff surface, and very often 
this darker center is divided by "shafting" as light as 
the edging, making a very uneven surface. In some cases 
the lacing appears very regular. In others it is irregular 
and more or less mixed with irregular blotches of light 
color. The difference between the two shades of buff ap- 
pears to be much exaggerated by exposing the birds to 
sun and weather. The plausible explanation of" this is that 
the parents differed in respect to fading, and that the 
birds may inherit the capacity to hold one shade better 
than the other. 

There is frequently a dark, instead of a light edge on 
a buff feather. This is most conspicuous on the backs of 
females. It is quite invariably a glossy edging, and ap- 
pears to occur oftenest in lines in which the males have 
good luster in the male plumage. It is less objectionable 
than the white edging because it does not give the slight- 



ly washed-out appearance that goes with the other fault. 
Undesirable as these faults are, birds that have them only 
in a minor degree — that appear sound colored at a little 
distance or in poor lights, and are generally even in color — 
are much better birds to show than those of extra-good^ 
sound color but with different shades in one or more 
sections. In fact, judges generally will favor birds that to 
those not familiar with their practice, appear to lack 
something of "rich golden buff rather than those show- 
ing any difference of color between sections. Most judges 
are also especially severe on birds in which the hackle 
is of a pronouncedly different shade from the back. Some 
difference in the shade of the tail will usually be toler- 
ated, especially if the tail is a little dark. Many males 
have tails that are of a chestnut shade. If this is fairly 
sound in color, and the colors of saddle, lesser coverts 
and the remainder of the tail are graded and blend without 
showing too abrupt a break from back to tail color, a bird 
with a reddish tail may be placed 
well, when a bird with a like fault 
in the hackle, or across theback and 
wings, would not get looked at a 
second time. 

Absolutely good sound buff col- 
or all over the bird is extremely 
rare. Many of the best bred birds 
have it on the outer surface of the 
body (all parts) but fail in wings 
and tail. Many specimens that one 
not trained in the examination of 
buff color would say were even in 
shade "from head to tail" are found 
to be uneven when the head of the 
bird is bent back so that a direct 
comparison of the color of the 
hackle with that of the middle of 
the back and the saddle can be 
made. Where the difference is so 
slight it is really imperceptible when the bird is in a 
natural position, the perfect blending of shades between 
the back and neck sections deceives the eye and gives the 
impression of absolute uniformity. The judge does not 
trust to his eye alone but tests the uniformity of color by 
comparison of the extremes. 

In general, it may be said that a bird that appears a 
good uniform buff as it runs in the yard, and that upon 
examination is found to have no serious faults in the con- 
cealed parts of the plumage has a chance of being placed 
in any but the very strongest competition in buff vari- 
eties. At the best shows, and where club shows occur, 
it usually takes a bird of good color all through, only one 
or two sections at all off, to get a place. Probably more 
quality in color is required to win in strong competition 
in Buff Orpingtons than in any other buff variety, for the 
practice of shading birds while their show plumage is 
growing is general among the leading Buff Orpington 
breeders. They either have uncommonly good natural 
shade, or provide what is required. 

The Buff Cochin, being far the oldest of the buff 
varieties and highly improved in color before any of 
the rest appeared, and being bred now almost exclusively 
by fanciers of long experience with it, has uniformity of 
color better established than any other buff variety, and 
in the stocks of fanciers few birds are found that are not 
of pretty good exhibition color, the exceptions being the 
darker birds used to keep color from running too light. 
Buff Cochin Bantams, being much more popular and in the 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



S3 



hands of many novices, do not present the same uniform 
good color. Buff Minorcas are new, with good buff 
•color very rare. Buff Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes and 
Leghorns are extremely variable, but with few birds shown 
anywhere that appear to have had the care taken with the 
plumage while growing that would preserve the shade 
of color in its original value. Most buff birds will show 
better color in the coops in the showroom than in a strong 
outside light, because the slight differences in color are 




Upper — Good red color the same shade in all sections. Middle and 

lower — Poor buff color varying in the different sections, showing 

patchiness in many sections, and full of mottling and-shafting 

not perceptible in modified light. For this reason a 
novice in showing buff birds often underrates the value of 
birds he sees in a bright light in the yards, as compared 
with some he has seen in a subdued light at a show, and 
I have known men to buy a bird at a show to improve 
the color of their stock, only to find when they took it 
home that in a clear light it was inferior to their own. 



While the description in the Standard has remained 
unchanged since 1898 the shade of buff in favor varies 
more or less from time to time. Different judges also 
have their preferences for particular shades, and in general, 
rather light birds get the preference at eastern shows, 
while in the West medium birds are favored. In some 
show seasons buff birds of all varieties appear nnusually 
sound and even in color, while at other times it is hard to 
find a specimen that shows prime finish and quality in 
color. The difference is probably attributable to weather 
conditions. To establish the cause with any degree of cer- 
tainty would require a more thorough inquiry into the 
conditions affecting different flocks than it is practical for 
anyone to make. The point of interest to an exhibitor is 
that when color generally is better or worse in his Buffs 
than he expected it to be. the probability is that most of 
his competitors are in the same position. 

The buff laced varieties are rare. Little interest is 
taken in them, and anything that is passably represent- 
ative of the type usually is given an award when shown. 

Undercolor — The Standard requires undercolor a 
lighter shade of buff than the surface. This means lighter 
than the Standard color for the surface, not lighter in any 
case than the surface of the particular bird under con- 
sideration. The distinction is of more importance from 
the breeder's than from the exhibitor's standpoint, but in 
some cases may be of consequence to the exhibitor — es- 
pecially when showing under a judge who has a strong 
bias in favor of good undercolor. It is often stated that 
the undercolor is invariably lighter than the surface. 
That is true as a general rule, but it has exceptions, and 
these exceptions are most likely to be found in birds with 
light lacing on the surface. In such cases, and partic- 
ularly in score-card shows, the strength of the under- 
color may offset the weakness of surface color. As a 
rule, at comparison , shows, superior undercolor will not 
place a bird ahead of one equally good in surface color un- 
less decision comes to the undercolor after the judge has 
been unable to decide between the birds on any external 
point. 

The most common defect in buff undercolor is lack 
of buff color. In some specimens, particularly in old fe- 
males, it is white — or nearly so. This is not a fatal hand- 
icap to an otherwise exceptionally good bird, for in buff 
varieties the penalties for white in undercolor cannot be 
applied as in black and black-red varieties, and it is practi- 
cally impossible to avoid having a good deal of what else- 
where would be called positive white in the undercolor of 
buff birds as long as very light buff is favored in judging. 

Slate in the undercolor of buff varieties is a fault that 
belongs to their early stages of development. There is 
no excuse for it today in any but the new Buff Minorca. 

Color of Shanks and Beaks — All buff varieties, ex- 
cept the Orpington', Minorca and the buff laced vari- 
eties of Polish, have yellow legs and beaks, and in these 
faults of color are rare. In the Orpingtons and Minorcas 
the tendency is to yellowish shanks, so that except where 
they have been long carefully bred for proper color in this 
section many otherwise good birds have to be discarded 
for exhibition purposes. 

COLOR FAULTS— RED VARIETIES 

There are three red varieties of fowls: the Rhode 
Island Red (in two subvarieties, rose and single comb), 
the Buckeye and the Red Sussex. As these all contain 
some black in wings and tail, and ticking of black is re- 
quired in the hackle of the Rhode Island Red female, red 
is not classed as a "solid" color, and in making sweep- 



84 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



stakes awards is not handicapped as buff, black and white 
are. The Standard color description is different for each 
of these red varieties. 

The Rhode Island Red is described differently in dif- 
ferent sections as, neck: in male "rich, brilliant red"; in 
female "rich red"; body and fluff: in the male "rich red"; 
in the female "red." These descriptions indicate differ- 
ence in brilliance between the male and female. But in 
the general description of plumage color it is specified 
that the less contrast there is between sections the better, 
and that "harmonious blending in all sections is desired." 
This specification being in accordance with the general 
principle in the making and application of standards — that 
self or solid colors shall be of even shade all over the 
bird — the differences in descriptions of color for differ- 
ent sections lose their significance and really become mis- 
leading to those who attempt to follow the Standard lit- 
erally. The detailed color specifications in the Standard 
really are descriptions of the best birds of the time. The 
specifications for the ideal are in the general description 
of plumage. The birds now, in considerable numbers, have 
a very uniform shade of red all over. 

The Standard does not describe any particular shade 
of red. Rhode Island Red breeders and judges favor in 
general two different shades of dark red. One group 
prefers the brightest dark red found that has no sugges- 
tion of wine color, maroon or brown. The other — more 
numerous — group prefers what is often described as a 
"rich wine color." Both groups agree in demanding one 
uniform shade of red all over the bird; and most judges 
will give a bird of uniform, even color on the surface, 
but of the shade they do not prefer, place over a bird of 
the shade they prefer but lacking in uniformity. 

The Buckeye is described in the Standard as "mahog- 
any bay" in color, with undercolor red, except on the back 
where a slate bar is specified. In the description of the 
Red Sussex the terms used are "mahogany red," "rich 
mahogany red," and "lustrous mahogany red"; and the re- 
quirement for undercolor is slate "shading to red at the 
base." It is important to note the requirement for slate 
undercolor throughout the Red Sussex and in the back of 
the Buckeye, because in the list of cuts for defects in the 
Standard these cases are not excepted, as they should be, 
from the provision for specific cuts for slate undercolor in 
buff and red varieties "in each section where found." 

The term "mahogany" as applied to red and bay is 
quite as indefinite as the terms "rich" and "brilliant." 
Without close regard to Standard definition the tendency 
of judging in both Buckeyes and Sussex is toward the 
shades popular in Rhode Island Reds. In view of the 
history of standards for buff color, it is presumable that 
red colors will go through the same changes — they are 
quite evidently doing so now; and the exhibitor of Buck- 
eyes or Sussex who has not the opportunity to see these 
varieties at the shows where the best classes appear, but 
who has opportunities to see representative classes of the 
more popular Reds will find it to his advantage to use his 
observations on Red color as a basis of determination of 
the proper color — in the estimation of most judges — for 
his variety. In the case of the Buckeye something a 
little lighter and duller than the lighter popular shade in 
Reds will meet the requirements of discrimination ac- 
cording to Standard descriptions. In the case of the 
Sussex, the requirement for slate in undercolor on a dark 
red fowl leads to a darker surface than can regularly be 
secured with red undercolor. 



Disqualifications — In Rhode Island Reds and Buck- 
eyes, entirely white feathers; in Sussex, white feathers 
showing on the surface. When in the soft plumage such 
feathers are removed. 

Most Common Defects — Very light or very dark- 
colored birds; different shades of red in different sections; 
shafting; unevenness of color of red in a section or on a 
feather; light lacing and mottling; dark glossy lacing; 
black peppering or stippling in red surfaces. In the Rhode 
Island Red female, lack of black ticking in the hackle; and 
in the male, presence of red in the tail where black is 
specified. 

It is often remarked in regard to Rhode Island Reds, 
that as the Standard specifications for red lack definite- 
ness, any shade of red that might be considered a rich red, 
or a brilliant red is "Standard." Technically this may be 
correct, practically it is not, for where the language of the 
Standard admits of such a wide range in application, com- 
mon-sense demands that custom or use shall determine 
what the words leave indeterminate. As has been pointed 
out, custom among Rhode Island Red breeders admits as 
meeting the requirements of the Standard only the shades 
of red near and between a very dark red that is still un- 
questionably red, and a deeper red with a wine color or 
maroon tint. On the light side the color runs to a bricky, 
yellowish red, and on the dark side to a reddish brown. 
A bird cannot go very far from the range of popular 
shades in either direction and get any consideration in 
good company even though uniform in its (undesired) 
shade of color. In a small class of ordinary quality it 
might be placed, but in nearly all shows of any importance 
Rhode Island Reds are one of the largest classes and it 
takes birds of the popular color to win. 

Although, as has already been stated, Rhode Island 
Reds are well in advance of the 1915 Standard in the matter 
of uniformity and evenness of color, a great many birds 
lacking in that respect are produced and shown. There 
is a liberal sprinkling of them even in the largest classes 
and at the best shows. Absolute uniformity is in fact 
comparatively rare, but the birds that win in good com- 
petition mostly have a uniformity of shade which leaves 
little room for criticism on that point. Shafting is com- 
mon in this as in all varieties. In moderation it does not 
set an otherwise good specimen back much, and even when 
it is quite pronounced a bird that has a good deal of gen- 
eral color quality may be placed in spite of the fault. 

Unevenness of color in a section, feathers of differ- 
ent shades, or different shades on the same feathers, come 
■ — as in buff — from the mating of birds differing too much 
in shade of color. Dark glossy lacing in females results 
from matings to produce extreme brilliance in males. It 
is considered undesirable but only slightly handicaps a 
bird of good color and type. Peppering is most com- 
monly found on the wing bows and tail coverts of very 
dark red birds, and more often on females than on males. 
It is often so fine and inconspicuous that it is not noticed 
until a bird is examined closely. Some birds have a lot of 
this fine peppering quite invisible except on close inspec- 
tion. A lit'tle peppering is not of much consequence, but a 
noticeable amount of it will put a bird out of consideration. 

Lack of black ticking in females is not severely pun- 
ished by most judges. On the other hand, lack of inten- 
sity of black in the tails of males, and the presence of a 
pronounced bronze effect due to red in tail feathers, is 
commonly regarded as highly objectionable. A few breed- 
ers, and fewer judges, lean toward the "red" tails, but the 
greater number object to them. 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



85 




PENCILED FEMALE FEATHERS SHOWING A GOOD FEATHER AND ONE OR MORE FAULTY FEATHERS IN EACH GROUP 



Undercolor — In Rhode Island Reds good undercolor 
counts nearly if not quite as much as surface color. Most 
breeders and judges are cranks on the subject of strong 
undercolor, and it gets a good deal of consideration along 
with the surface color when the values of a bird are being 
summed up. The chief fault in undercolor in this breed 
is slate, which is very apt to be present to some extent in 
birds with intense color in the black sections, or parts. 
Slate in one or two sections will not hurt a bird much in 
competition, but appearing in many sections it- will. 

Color of Shanks and Beaks — In the Rhode Island 
Red these may be either rich yellow or reddish horn. The 
most common faults are a pale yellow verging on a flesh 
color, and a pinkish-white leg and beak. These are not 
common in well-bred stock, but quite so in stock of or- 
dinary quality. The darker birds usually have reddish 
horn legs and beaks, and with the dark red most in vogue 
yellow legs are not as numerous as in the early history 
of the breed. With the dark birds most favored, the gen- 
eral tendency is to accept the reddish 
horn leg and beak as most desirable. 
But on an interpretation of the Stand- 
ard according to the general prece- 
dents that when alternate specifica- 
tions are given the one first men- 
tioned is the preferred form, a dark 
bird with yellow legs and beak should 
win over one equally good in every 
respect, but with reddish horn legs 
and beak. A point of interest to the 
exhibitor of Rhode Island Reds is 
that in this breed the red on the out- 
side of the shank, which in most 
breeds is rated a blemish on a yellow 
leg is considered meritorious. It was 
made a requirement on the theory 
that it invariably accompanied vitality, 
and that emphasizing it would help 
to insure the selection of vigorous 
specimens only for exhibition. 

The Buckeye is required to have 
a beak of yellow shaded with reddish 
horn, and yellow legs. The absence 
of horn color on the beak counts as a 
fault and calls for a slight cut. The 
Red Sussex has a horn beak and white 



shanks and toes — more properly described as pinkish 
white or flesh color. 

COLOR FAULTS— PENCILED VARIETIES 

A penciled color pattern is properly one with two or 
more darker stripes on a light ground, following the out- 
line of the feather, being crescentric near the tip and ap- 
proximating straight lines where they run parallel to the 
quill and edges of the feather. It is unfortunate that 
the Standard describes as penciling the fine barring on 
the two so-called penciled varieties of the Hamburg, for 
the same term ought not to apply to two such different 
patterns as transverse stripes and circuitous stripes. The 
cause of the inconsistency is in the loose application of 
terms in the early days. In systematic consideration of 
color patterns we have to make proper distinction and dis- 
cuss the "penciled" Hamburgs with barred patterns. 

Of the penciled varieties there are two groups hav- 
ing the same pattern, but in different colors: — one being 




FEATHERS FROM HACKLE. WING BOW AND SADDLE OF SILVER PENCILED MALE 
It is such irregularities as are plainly seen in the defective feathers here that give 



the top color of males of this color pattern a smoky, dirty tinge 



86 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



golden penciled — that is, having a golden or red or red- 
dish ground with dark pencilings of brown or black; the 
other silver penciled — that is, having a white or light 
silvery gray ground with pencilings of darker gray ap- 
proaching black. 

The penciled varieties take that description from the 
markings of the females which are penciled all over 
while' the males have no penciling at all but have their 
light and dark color massed in different sections, and 
are in color just like the males of several varieties in which 
the females are not penciled. The general pattern of these 
males is a black breast, body and tail, with the top color — 
hackle, back and saddle — in one group red, in the other 




MISMARKED FEATHERS FROM BACK AND SHOULDERS OP 
SILVER PENCILED MALE 

white. These patterns are often spoken of as black-red 
and black-white. In females of the black-red penciled 
pattern the ground color is a buff, bay or red, with brown 
or black penciling. In females of the black-red pattern 
the ground color is white or a light silvery gray and the 
penciling is a darker gray sometimes approaching black. 
Except that the color terms are different the character- 
istics of the patterns in these two groups are identical; 
whatever applies to one applies to the other by substitut- 
ing the appropriate color term. 

The typical penciled pattern is that in which each 
feather has three or more distinct pencilings. The vari- 
eties having this pattern are: 

Black-Red (also called Partridge) — Partridge Cochin, 
Partridge Plymouth Rock, Partridge Wyandotte. 

Black-White— Dark Brahma, Silver Penciled Ply- 
mouth Rock, Silver Penciled Wyandotte. 

Disqualifications in Partridge Varieties — White in 
main tail or sickle feathers or in flights. 

In silver penciled varieties there are no special color 
disqualifications. 

MOST COMMON DEFECTS 
In Partridge Varieties— Gray in tail or wings; red in 
the black sections of males; unevenness in shade of red 
top color; poor striping in the hackles, backs and saddles 
of males; smutty edging on the hackles in females; lack 
of regularity and distinctness of penciling; wrong shade 
of color and lack of uniformity in the lighter ground col- 
or; lack of intensity in the color of the dark pencilings. 



In Silver Penciled Varieties — White or gray in the 
black sections of males; poor striping in the hackle, back 
and saddle; brown or red, or smutty gray in the white 
of top color. In females: lack of regularity and dis- 
tinctness of penciling; reddish surface tinge in the dark 
penciling. 

In Males of Both Types — In selecting a male of either 
Partridge or Silver Penciled pattern for exhibition the first 
thing to consider is the black breast and body which are 
the most striking features of the bird as he stands in the 
exhibition coop. The blacker these sections, the better; 
but a little red or white should not condemn a bird without 
further consideration, for the proportion of birds that are 
absolutely sound and black and clean in color and mark- 
ings of the top sections are small, especially in the silver 
penciled varieties where a little dark color in the wrong 
place is more striking than on the red ground. 

The next point to consider is the unevenness of ap- 
pearance of the whole top color — from head to tail. In the 
Partridge males the red should b-e as rich and dark as 
possible and still have the black stripes show with some 
distinctness. Most of the males that win prizes in the best 
competition in Partridge Rocks and Wyandottes are rather 
darker red than the winners in Partridge Cochins. In 
the two first-named varieties a novice will usually find the 
judge favoring a bird rather darker in red than he thinks 
meets the specification for some distinctness in contrast 
between the red ground and black striping. In the sil- 
ver penciled males comparatively few birds are found that 
have clean silvery ground color. In fact, a large pro- 
portion of winners are rather brassy and smutty looking, 
and some very much so. It should be observed however, 
that in silver penciled males that win with these faults 
the striping is generally strong all through. Most judges 
prefer such birds to one with a clean looking top surface 
but narrow and weak striping. 

In Females of Both Types — The first color consid- 
erations are evenness of general shades of surface 
color all over the bird, with distinctness of penciling also 
as nearly uniform as possible in all sections. The best 
exhibition female is the one that is noticeable at first sight 
for these qualities. To assure himself that his impression 
that a bird has these qualities is correct one must examine 
it critically in each and every section. On a snap 
judgment he may easily be mistaken because he is taking 
his impression from some one or more sections that are 
conspicuously good, and fails to note that one or more 
sections may be poor. In Partridge varieties a rich, ma- 
hogany-bay ground is preferred, but uniformity of ground 
color in all sections is more important than any particular 
shade of ground color. In the silver penciled varieties 
the ground color is usually uniform unless some sections 
have more flecks of black in it than otherwise; and the 
most conspicuous common faults are weakness and ir- 
regularity of penciling and a reddish tinge on the surface. 
In both color types the general tendency is for the breast 
to be lighter color than the back because the dark pencil- 
ing is a little narrower and both colors a little lighter 
in shade. 

The correction of general faults of color is a matter 
of breeding. When it comes to the selection of specimens 
for exhibition nothing can be done to remedy them. The 
question simply is how far can a bird fail in such respects 
and still have a chance of winning. It is hardly possible 
to indicate that degree of fault in general appearance in 
words. It varies according to the keenness of the com- 
petition and the ideals of the judges. Only a small portion 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



X7 



of the stocks of these varieties — a few of the best strains, 
and not all the birds in those strains — is of really high qual- 
ity by critical standards, for the pattern is a difficult one 
and it is only in recent years that most of those working 
with it have begun to get fair control of the production of 
it. Except as he may have stock direct from one of the best 
strains the novice is not likely to have anything wonderful. 
If he supposes he has, the probability is that he cannot see 
the common faults. If he is able to see these faults and to 
distinguish differences in value in different sections, I 
think it is safe to advise him that except in the best class- 
es birds that seem to him pretty good — yet a little dis- 
appointing in quality of color in most particulars — will 
have a fair chance of winning. 

Nearly all birds of these varieties (and females es- 
pecially), however good the markings in general, have 
many mismarked feathers in the soft plumage the removal 
of which will greatly improve the appearance of the bird. 
Caution should be used in plucking these feathers for the 
removal of too many of them — particularly the removal of 
a group that are alike defective — may expose too much of 
the undercolor, thus spoiling the appearance of the sur- 
face more than the original defects. 

Color of Shanks and Beaks — In all these varieties the 
beak is horn color shading to yellow in the males, and 
yellow or dusky yellow in the females. In scoring a bird 
a dusky yellow shank could not be cut, but in case of a 
tie a yellow shank would have the preference, as it does — 
other things being equal — in comparison judging. 

The Dark Cornish — The color of this variety is a 
modification of the Partridge or golden pattern. The 
breed is short feathered and prized especially for its type. 
The males are mostly so dark that the contrast in black and 
red in top color is lacking and so details of their com- 
bination are not given much attention. Richness of color 
and high luster are the points most esteemed. In the 
females the color is the same as in the Partridge varieties 
but with two pencilings on each feather. A bird with tri- 
ple penciling is not disqualified, but is subject to a dis- 
count for fault in every section where this appears. 
COLOR FAULTS— STIPPLED VARIETIES 

The males in this pattern have the same arrangement 
of colors as the males in the penciled breeds. It is the 
females that are stippled and have the combination of 
colors from which the general shade results that gives 
to the black-red type the designation "brown," and to 



the black-white the designation "silver." 

Of the black-red color there are three varieties: the 
Brown Leghorn — now in two color subvarieties, light 
and dark (these being shades of the same color and 





FLIGHTS OP PENCILED, LACED OR ERMINE MALE 
-average-good flight feather of black-white male. 2 — flight feather wit] 
3 — white at base of quill and in wide upper web 



WING FEATHERS OF SILVER PENCILED FEMALE CON- 
TAINING AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF WHITE 
A bird with as poor feathers as these in the wings gets little con- 
sideration when competition is at all good 

pattern, and not different colors and patterns as in the 
Light and Dark Brahma); and the Black-Breasted Red 
Exhibition Game and Game Bantam. 

In the black-white pattern there are: the Silver Leg- 
horn, Silver Gray Dorking, Golden and Silver Duckwing 
Exhibition Games and Game Bantams. 

Disqualifications — In Brown Leghorn males: lack 
of evenness and richness of top color; lack of stippling; 
gray in wings and tail. In females: lack of evenness of 
stippling; reddish or ashy tinge to 
plumage; light shafting; gray in 
wings and tail: in some stocks, 
bricky patches in the dark parts of 
flight feathers. 

As the Brown Leghorn is now 
divided into light and dark subvarie- 
ties for exhibition as well as in breed- 
ing, and the breeders are about even- 
ly divided on the wisdom of that act, 
while the breeders of other varieties 
that are regularly double mated ap- 
pear to be generally opposed to mak- 
ing two color subvarieties, it is not 
possible to give exhibitors advice in 
regard to these varieties with the 
same confidence as where the prec- 
edents of the showroom are well 
established. Neither the New York 
nor Boston Show have at this writing 
made classifications in Brown Leg- 



vhite at base. 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



horns to meet the changes in the Standard, and the eastern 
breeders of Brown Leghorns reinforced by others opposed 
to the policy of splitting color varieties are disposed to 
urge the repeal of the legislation that divided this variety. 
In this situation it seems to me advisable to discuss the 
variety first on the old basis, and then indicate the fea- 
tures that require further consideration where classifica- 
tion 6f Light and Dark Brown Leghorns is provided. 




LIGHT STIPPLED FEATHERS FROM SILVER GRAY DORKIXG HEN 
1 — breast; 2 — cushion; 3 and 4 — back; 5 — cushion 



The average good exhibition Brown Leghorn male 
meets the full Standard specifications better than the aver- 
age good exhibition female. He rarely fails much any- 
where in quantity of black color, but the breast may have 
some purple barring not noticeable until observed in the 
right light. Then, if he has uniform rich and rather deep 
red top color, he may fail a little in striping, and may 
even lack striping in the saddle, yet get a place in pretty 
good competition — provided he has good type and style 
and a good head. It is only relatively gross faults of de- 
tail in color that count strongly against him, if the 
general effect in color is pleasing. 

In the female color details are all important. To win 
in good competition a Brown Leghorn female must have 
attractive shape and carriage, and a good head, but practi- 
cally all the birds against which she has to compete will 
be good to very good in these respects and so decisions 
will turn on color in a pattern where it is the little de- 
tails that give finish that count, because they are every- 
where conspicuous. The stippling on a stippled feather 
has a natural tendency to form patterns, particularly an 
irregular, finely penciled marking in which the pencilings 
are not continuous lines but broken lines formed by the 
arrangement of separate points. 

In all Standards up to 1905 the marking of Brown 
Leghorn female plumage was described as "finely penciled." 
The velvety soft surface shade that is desired is obtained 
when the stippling is pure stippling with no suggestion 
of lines in its arrangement, but a uniform distribution of 
fine dark dots on a lighter surface. The first thing to 
look for in color of an exhibition female is the soft 



brown effect particularly noticeable on the back of the 
birds of prime color. The tone of color should be em- 
phatically brown — neither a reddish brown nor an ashy 
medium, and as some judges lean to the light ashy brown, 
and some abhor ashiness and will favor a reddish brown 
bird rather than one they regard as having a "washed- 
out" appearance, it is quite important for an exhibitor to 
know the ideas of the judges on this point. 

The body of a hen is usually a 
little lighter in color than the back. 
The gradation of color should be 
hardly perceptible and the brown 
shade should be in evidence all the 
way down. Many birds that are good 
color on top run to an ashy, faded 
looking brown on the sides and un- 
derneath. The Standard description 
of the breast as a "rich salmon" gives 
most people the idea of a stronger, 
richer red than is desired. Prior to 
1898 the Standard description of 
breast color was "a rich salmon 
brown." That description would ap- 
ply to some birds, but no one ever 
saw on the feathers of a fowl the 
color of rich red salmon meat. The 
reddish breast of the Brown Leg- 
horn is rich in color compared with 
the breast of the gray females in 
this pattern, which is described as 
"salmon" but it has a distinct brown 
tone altogether lacking in the color 
of the meat of the salmon and it 
also has the appearance of a semi- 
transparent color put on over a pale 
ground and brushed on very lightly 
where it extends from the breast to the sides and body. 

A correct interpretation of the color of breast is of 
a good deal of importance, for it appears quite plain 
from comparison that a preference for strength in this 
section is largely if not wholly responsible for the distinct, 
and to many breeders and judges objectionable, reddish 
cast all over the bird that is seen in some otherwise very 
high-quality birds. Without losing sight of the require- 
ments for a comparatively distinct red tone in the breast, 
the exhibitor should select first for the brown surlace 
color as seen on the back and sides, and get as good 
breasts as he can to go with this. The shade of the breast 
is of less importance than the shade of the brown sections, 
and practically all exhibitors and judges of this variety 
agree that a good deal of latitude is allowable in that — 
provided the color on a bird is even and an exhibition pen 
of females is properly matched in color. 

Absolute freedom from shafting is by no means com- 
mon. Many birds of remarkable quality in other respects 
are more or less disfigured (to a highly critical judgment) 
by the presence of shafting in one or more sections. Such 
a bird may be well placed notwithstanding the 
fault, for if the quality in other respects is there 
the judge does not ignore it, though I think I have 
observed that the tendency of judges is to consider care- 
fully" every specimen quite free from shafting before 
placing a specimen with distinct shafting above it. 

. Where separate classes are made for Light and Dark 
Brown Leghorns, the males in the first are much lighter 
red, and generally not so uniform a red, and not as well 
striped in hackle and saddle as the exhibition male in the 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



89 



old Standard variety. There is also more of a tendency to 
red in the black of breast and body. When males of the 
pullet line were exhibited only in the occasional case where 
one was found that approached the color and quality of 
males of the other line, it was only the bird of outstand- 
ing quality that received consideration for exhibition. As 
a rule, a breeder would not even look at the males of the 
pullet line with any idea of exhibiting them, but judged 
them entirely on their relationship to winning females 
and ability to produce winning females. Now it is nec- 
essary in exhibiting Light Brown Leghorns to select 
males on appearance without regard for anything else and 
the Light male must have all the qualities of the other 
in lighter red colors. On general 
principles and precedents in judging 
the great majority of judges will pick 
the best looking birds — according to 
established standards — even though 
the new Standard tolerates what was 
previously regarded as a fault. 

In the Dark Brown Leghorn the 
females are of a type not previously 
regarded as desirable — sometimes 
nearly black — often more or less 
penciled, occasionally beautifully 
stippled, though very dark as com- 
pared with the female of the Light 
variety. The best exhibition birds 
will naturally be the most uniformly 
and distinctly stippled dark females. 
In view of the persistence of the taste 
for distinctness in markings w-herever 
markings are required in a pattern, it 
appears quite plain to a student of 
poultry history that the best exhibi- 
tion Dark Brown Leghorn females 
will not come from the same lines 
that produce the richest colored Dark 
males. Inasmuch as the main argu- 
ment for the separation of the Brown 
Leghorn into two color subvarieties 
was to do away with the necessity for 
double mating — in effect to make 

"Standard" not a bird of a certain description, but the 
bird of one sex used with a certain type of the other sex 
to produce that type — the natural supposition would be 
that the bird to select to show would be the same bird 
that would be selected to breed. The exhibitor who pro- 
ceeds on that assumption will in nearly every case find 
himself beaten by the exhibitor who selects for finish 
in color details. 

Black and Red Exhibition Games and Game Bantams — 
In these the color requirements are in general the same 
as for Brown Leghorns, but less rigid in the description 
and still less rigid in the judging. This leniency comes 
from the fact that "type" is the feature that is most prized 
in Exhibition Games, and also from the fact that the 
interest and competition in them is very much more lim- 
ited. Exhibition Game Bantams are more popular than 
the large Games, but there are only a few shows where 
the competition in either is strong enough to bring de- 
cisions down to fine points. 

Silver and Silver Gray Color Defects — In none of 
these varieties has color been brought to the high finish 
reached in the Brown Leghorn (old Standard). The 
Dorking is bred primarily for shape and type, and so are 
the Games, and both are comparatively rare in this coun- 



try. Silver Leghorns are also rare, and as many of the 
best birds come from England where a more heavily 
striped male than our Standard calls for is in favor, the 
best classes of this variety usually appear rather in ad- 
vance of the Standard in color. An exhibitor of the vari- 
ety is likely to find that his males with more striping than 
the Standard calls for will win over those that seem to 
him to better meet the specifications. 

On Silver Gray Dorking males a little striping at the 
base of the hackle is admissible but not desired. The 
most common defect is brassiness in the hackle, back and 
saddle. Silver Dorking females seen at the best shows 
here are usually very attractive in color. Many of them 




DARK STIPPLED FEATHERS FROM COLORED DORKING HEN 
6 — wing bow; 7. 8 and 9 — back 

have considerable shafting, but unless it is quite coarse 
it is not as conspicuous on them as on brown females. 

Golden and Silver Duckwing Game males differ only 
in that the former is a creamy or straw color in the 
"white" sections, while the latter is pure white. The 
females are identical in description, except that the flights 
of the wings of the Golden female are brown where the 
others are black. There is so little interest in these vari- 
eties in this country that there seems no occasion to go 
into details of faults. Almost anywhere any bird that 
generally conforms to Standard description will win. Oc- 
casionally good small competitive classes appear at good 
shows, but this is so rare that a breeder of passably good 
birds is reasonably sure of winning wherever he exhibits. 

COLOR FAULTS— LACED VARIETIES 

In some varieties of this pattern the males have the 
same characteristics of top color as the penciled and 
stippled varieties with only the breast and body laced, 
while the females are laced all over. That is the case in 
the Laced Wyandottes of which there are two varieties 
— the golden and the silver. 

The Golden and Silver Polish, and the Golden and 
Silver Sebright Bantams — all of which have dark lacings 
on a light ground — are laced all over in both sexes. 



90 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



The Red Laced Cornish, and Buff Laced Polish and 
Polish Bantams are laced all over with a light-colored 
lacing except that lacing may be absent or deficient in 
tail feathers. 

In Brown-Red Exhibition Games and Game Bantams 
the lacing is confined to the breast, both male and female 
having the feathers in this section black laced with a nar- 




FEATHERS PROM SILVER LACED FEMALES 
gula 



Showing gradations 1 
large open center with clean black lacing required by the Standard 
many feathers like the first three at tht left. 

row edging of lemon color. The top color of the male 
is lemon, each feather having a fine black stripe through 
the center; other sections black. 

In all laced varieties, and sections, the general object 
sought is to secure clean-cut lacings, with the space in- 
side free from the lacing color, and the same character of 
lacing, and the appearance of uniformity of surface shade 
in all laced sections. In the Wyandottes, Golden and Sil- 
ver Polish and Sebright 
Bantams, the lacing has 
been brought to a quite 
high degree of excellence. 
In the Buff Laced and 
White Laced Red types 
it is not nearly so good, 
and the White Laced Red 
Cornish is the only one of 
the class in which there is 
interest and competition 
enough to bring progres- 
sive improvement. 

Most Common De- 
fects in Laced Wyandottes 
— In the golden variety, 
white or gray in plumage. 
In both varieties irregular 
lacing and mossy centers; 
lacing too heavy. with small 
centers;lacing too light and 
fine, giving the bird or sec- 
tion a washed-out appear- 
ance. In Goldens, ground 
color so light that richness 
of coloring is lacking; or 
so dark that while the gen- 



eral color tone is rich the separate colors lack distinctness. 
The Laced Wyandottes have this peculiarity in char- 
acter of markings; while the general plumage has dark 
lacing on a light ground, the markings of the neck hackles 
in both sexes, and of the saddle hackle in the male, re- 
verse this arrangement of colors so that the appearance 
is of a dark stripe on a light ground. Also in these vari- 
eties the tail is black 
and black predomi- 
nates in the wings, so 
that there is much 
more dark pigment in 
the fowl, and cleanness 
of ground color is more 
difficult to secure than 
in the Polish and Se- 
brights, which are 
everywhere laced and 
have the dark pigment 
greatly reduced. 

This the exhibitor 
of Laced Wyandottes 
must consider when he 
is making his selections, 
and in general he must 
be satisfied with a bird 
that lacks something of 
the snappy contrasts 
seen in both Golden 
and Silver Sebrights — 
and in a less, but still 
highly pleasing degree 
in the Silver Polish. Both the merits and faults in Laced 
Wyandottes are more conspicuous in the Silver Laced than 
in the Golden Laced Wyandotte. The greatest difficulty 
in Silver males is to get birds that are at the same time 
well laced on the breast and free from smuttiness on the 
top sections. Few specimens meet both requirements 
as satisfactorily as the exhibitor would like. In a Golden 
male- smuttiness is not conspicuous if the top color is 



of white shafting at the tip of a nearly black feather to t 
Even the best birds usually ha 




MOSSY MALE AND FEMALE SILVER LACED WYANDOTTE FEATHERS 
A large proportion of males winning in good competition are decidedly "smutty" because of feath- 
ers like the four at the left prevalent in hackle, back and saddle. Feathers of the character of the four 
female feathers at the right are most prevalent in the cushion, tail coverts and on the thighs but should be 



looked f.i 



all 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



91 



rich and uniform. But nearly all good Silver males are 
more or less conspicuously smutty, and this fault is gen- 
erally tolerated rather than sacrifice the laced sections. 

In both sexes of Goldens the common tendency is for 
breeders to favor a ground color rather deeper and richer 
than the "golden-bay" specified by the Standard. This does 
not make any particular difference as far as awards are 
concerned, but the lighter birds, if well marked, make 
a much more attractive display in the showroom than the 
others. Few Laced Wyandottes are shown that are not 
of at least fair exhibition quality. While birds that with 
general good quality have the common faults are sure of 
consideration, a bird free from those faults and lacking 
strong points will get no attention in good competition. 

Buff Laced Varieties — These have been considered in 
connection with buff varieties. 

Laced Polish — Interest in these is almost entirely 
limited to a few veteran fanciers whose birds are exceed- 
ingly well bred for color in general but because of lack 
of competition do not always show on close inspection 
the quality of color that from a little distance they appear 
to have. Many of the Goldens are so dark as to quite lack 
the color contrasts needed to show them off to advantage. 
Except in the rare cases when several leading breeders 
come together, an exhibitor of Laced Polish generally 
wins wherever he shows. Buff Laced Polish have been 
considered in connection with buff color on page 81. 

Common Defects in Red Laced White — Lack of 
depth and uniformity of red color; lack of distinctness 
and evenness of white lacing; lack of evenness of appar- 
ent color in all sections. 

These faults are found in a large proportion of the 
birds of this variety reared, for the pattern is too new 
to have become highly finished. The best stocks however, 
produce a fair proportion of specimens good enough to 
show, and as the variety has had an abundance of effective 
publicity any important show is likely to have a class of 
them in which it takes a pretty good bird to get a place. 
Also, the variety is improving fast enough to make it al- 
ways necessary for an exhibitor who expects to win in 
all classes to go equally strong in all classes. He cannot 
take a few good specimens — fill out his string with inferior 
birds — and expect something on every entry. In many of 
the varieties not more extensively bred than this an ex- 
hibitor can go almost anywhere outside of a few leading 
shows and make good winnings with a string of mostly 
very ordinary birds of their kind. In this, if there is com- 
petition at all, the awards are certain to be divided, for 
all stocks are near akin and not far enough removed yet 
from the original stock for everyone to have given his 
the strain character which tends to bring the poorest of a 
string in line with the better when prizes are awarded. 

Sebright Bantams — In these it takes remarkably 
nice specimens with very narrow lacing and clean ground 
color to win at any show where large classes of Bantams 
are the rule. At many minor shows ordinary birds failing 
in nearly every point of color as well as in type may win. 

Most Common Defects — In finely laced birds lack of 
intensity of color in the lacing. In more heavily laced 
birds lack of cleanness of ground color. In the Goldens 
a ground color lighter than the "golden-bay" specified 
in the Standard is much favored, and with this the lacings 
tend to be brown rather than black. 

COLOR FAULTS— BLUE OR BLUE LACED 
PATTERN 

The Standard blue varieties are the Blue Andalusian 
and the Blue Orpington. Non-Standard varieties in this 



color are the Blue Wyandotte and Blue Leghorn. 

The Standard blue is described as a slaty blue laced 
with darker blue except in the top color of the male which 
is a solid, dark lustrous blue. 

Disqualifications — Red or white in any part of the 
plumage. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of uniformity of blue 
shade and of distinctness of markings where lacing is 
specified; drab shades in blue — particularly in the light 




COMMON' FAULTS IN BLUE LACED PLUMAGE 
These feathers are poorly laced and also uneven in ground color 

ground color; lack of blue luster in top color of the male — > 
and the presence in it of dead black or greenish tints v 
or of reddish color where not positive enough to con- 
stitute a disqualification. 

In general, except that the top color of the male is. 
usually relatively dark and the hackle of the female tends, 
to run dark, the most common fault in the blue pattern 
is an apparent lack of blue pigment, and a lack of con- 
trast between the dark and the light shades. The lack 
of contrast and of a finished appearance seems to be due 




AVERAGE-GOOD DARK BLUE LACED FEATHERS 

The centers here are a little cloudy but the lacing is quite strong 

and a specimen with plumage of this quality is very attractive 

to the general vagueness of the Standard description of 
color, and to the fact that any "darker blue" for the 
lacing would meet Standard specifications. The English 
Standard specifies the light color as a "silver blue," and 
the lacings on it and the top color of the male as "black." 
The darkest color seen on Andalusians here lacks quite a 
little of being black. If in selecting, an exhibitor of blue 
fowls will give the preference to birds which seem to 
him to meet the specification of silver blue for the ground 



92 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




COMMON FAULTS IN MOTTLED BLACK AND WHITE PLUMAGE 



lacks a little in quality of black will 
usually win over one that is superior 
in black but inferior in mottling. 
The exhibitor of these varieties will 
also find as he meets good competi- 
tion that the birds are in advance of 
the Standard both in regard to 
amount and pattern of the white tips. 
The Standard calls for "about 
one feather in five" tipped with 
white, except in the back of the 
male, where the specification is 
"about one feather in ten." The 
birds that win at the best shows 
have nearer one-half the feathers 
tipped with white — many of them 
nearly every feather tipped. The 
Standard text does not specify any 
particular shape for the white tips, 
but the Standard illustrations show 
a V-shaped tip corresponding to the 
shape of the spangle in the Span- 
gled Hamburgs, but much smaller. 
The Standard makes the same re- 
quirements as to number of tips in 



color and dark blue for the darker color he will come 
as near as possible to a shade and combination of colors 
favored in the showroom. 

Uniformity of general blue shade of color is not found 
in competitive classes. Each competitor may have a gen- 
eral uniformity in the birds he shows, but except as it 
happens that different persons are showng closely related 
stock, or in an occasional bird, the difference of shade 
in different exhibits is usually apparent to any critical 
observer, and analysis of the awards will nearly always 
show that the particular shade of color did not influence 
the judging. 

COLOR FAULTS— MOTTLED, SPANGLED AND 
SPECKLED VARIETIES 

The mottled color pattern was originally no pattern at 
all, but simply the irregular mixture of different colors 
or different shades of the same color. Such mottling is 
now considered undesirable except in one almost obsolete 
variety — the Mottled Java. In the other varieties de- 
scribed as mottled — the Ancona and the Houdan — the 
plumage is black with a part of the 
feathers evenly tipped with white. 

Common Defects — The common 
defects of the black (except as to dis- 
qualifications for the presence of 
white); excess of white tips; defi- 
ciency of white tips; irregular distri- 
bution of white tips; irregular and un- 
desirable shape of white tips. 

Theoretically, the breeder of Mot- 
tled Anconas and Houdans has all the 
faults of the black pattern to contend 
with — plus those of the white mark- 
ings. As a matter of fact, attention 
to the requirements for white allows 
a little latitude in black color. It is 
desired to have the black as good as 
possible and many specimens of re- 
markable quality in that color are 
shown, but a well-marked bird that 



old and young birds, but both the number and size of the 
tips increase in each succeeding molt. 

An excess of tips in the soft plumage can be remedied 
by the removal just before exhibition of as many white- 
tipped feathers as appears desirable. A deficiency of 
white tips in the plumage may be partly remedied by 
plucking enough feathers quite evenly distributed 
through the plumage several months before a bird is to 
be exhibited, to get the' desired increase of number of 
white tips by the substitution of white-tipped new feath- 
ers. This process is in the nature of the case very un- 
certain as to results unless one knows pretty thoroughly 
the breeding of each specimen treated and how birds of 
its line usually change in the annual molt. Where the 
white tips on the feathers — though sufficiently numerous 
— are too small or somewhat smutty and lacking in dis- 
tinctness their removal to allow better feathers to take 
their places is more regularly effective. While the V- 
shaped white tip is preferred, a specimen with distinct 
crescentric or irregular tips would probably be preferred 
by most judges to one with small and indistinct V-shaped 




AVERAGE-GOOD MOTTLED BLACK AND WHITE FEATHERS 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



93 



tips. A few judges appear to favor quality in black col- 
or over everything else. For a while there was a decided 
tendency to give the preference to very dark birds ancS 
some judges were partial to nearly black specimens, es- 
pecially in cockerels and pullets, holding that it was both 
desirable and proper to make allowance for fading with 
age. At the present time I think it correct to say that 
with most judges uniform and fairly distinct mottling gets 
first consideration. 




MARKINGS OP SPECKLED SUSSEX PLUMAGE 

The varieties described in the Standard as being 
"spangled" are the Golden and Silver Spangled Ham- 
burgs, and the Redcap. The Standard definition of a 
spangle is: "A clearly defined marking of a distinctive 
color located at the end of a spangled feather." This is 
obviously one of the definitions that do not define; for 
one who sought to learn from a dictionary what a 
spangle feather means would find that the technical usage 
of the term is just the reverse of the common meaning. A 
spangle is a bright, presumably a sparkling, ornament on a 
dark or dull ground. A spangled feather is one having 
a clearly defined marking unlike the remainder of the 
surface in color at the tip. In the three varieties des- 
ignated as spangled the marking is a dark spot on a white 
or lighter ground. 

Most Common Defects in Spangled Varieties — Ir- 
regularity and lack of intensity in markings; spangles 
so large that they overlap with the overlapping of the 
feathers and do not show as separate and distinct. 

Interest in spangled varieties centers on the Silver 
Spangled Hamburg, it being the only one where the col- 
ors admit of contrasty effects that are attractive. Even 
in this variety the interest is almost entirely limited to 
breeders who began with it years ago as boys or young 
men. The Standard specifications for large spangles on 
the back, tail and wings, seem to be responsible for the 
spangles being all over the bird, though in some of the 
other sections it is specified that the spangle shall be pro- 
portionate to the size of the feather. The result is that 
the spangles on the breasts, bodies and backs, of females 
especially, are commonly so large that the sections are 
nearly black. According to Wright, very extensive pluck- 
ing is commonly resorted to in England to remove enough 
feathers to show the spangles separately. He declares 
that a good bird will sometimes "lose half a basketful." 
Some plucking to improve the appearance is no doubt 



resorted to by Hamburg exhibitors in this country, but 
there is much more evidence of the disposition of judges 
to award prizes to birds with good spangling on the in- 
dividual feather so large that the bird does not show the 
spangles distinctly, than of pulling of feathers by exhib- 
itors to anything like the extent mentioned by Wright as 
customary in England where the Hamburg is of more 
importance. The plucking here is more in the way of re- 
moving mismarked feathers, and does not go beyond what 
is customary in all colors. 

In Silver Spangled Hamburgs 
very good birds are required to win 
where the old breeders compete, but 
very ordinary specimens will be placed 
elsewhere. There is so little competi- 
tion in Golden Spangled Hamburgs 
that almost anything shown will be 
placed. 

Most Common Defects in 
Speckled Varieties — The rather indef- 
inite term "speckled" is applied to a 
single large variety, the Speckled 
Sussex — the color is found also on the 
Mille Fleur Bantam. 

Speckled Sussex — The pattern in 
this variety is really a double spangle 
— a black and white spangle on a red 
or buff feather. The Standard de- 
scribes the marking as a white tip di- 
vided from the balance of the feather 
by a narrow black bar. As in all well- 
known barred varieties great emphasis is placed upon bar- 
ring straight across the feather, the use of the term to 
describe the marking on the Sussex may be misleading 
unless the bar is defined as V-shaped. 

The most common faults in this pattern are defect- 
ive spangling and the presence of white or largely white 
feathers in tail and wings. Only a few breeders have so 
far succeeded in producing birds with good finish in col- 
or, and in general a bird that upon critical examination 
appears fairly good will stand well in a class of this 




MILLE FLEUR BANTAM MARKINGS 
Left — White spangle, black bar, red or bay ground. Right — ''Por- 
celain'' pattern, white spangle, blue bar, buff or cream ground 



94 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



pattern. The removal of mismarked feathers, if not too 
numerous, will greatly improve the appearance of the 
birds. 

COLOR FAULTS— BARRED VARIETIES 
In Standard patterns there are three groups which 
have all or most of their plumage alternate light and dark 
transverse bars across each feather. The most important 
of these groups is that which includes the Barred Ply- 
mouth Rock and the American Dominique, both of which 
are barred in all sections, and have a bluish or bluish-gray 
appearance, instead of the steely or silvery gray of the 
gray penciled varieties. The Dominique color require- 
ments of the Standard hardly go beyond the crudities ot 
the mongrel barred pattern in which the highly finished 
pattern of the modern Plymouth Rock originated. We 
will therefore, cons'der the Barred Plymouth Rock first 
in full detail, and the other in a supplementary manner. 
Disqualifications in Barred Rock Color — Red in any 
part of the plumage: two or more solid black primaries, 
secondaries or main tail feathers. 

Red feathers are fo.und mostly as single "foul feath- 
ers" in the soft plumage. One or more black feathers, or 
white feathers, will sometimes appear in tail or wings. 
As a general rule, where one appears there will be two, 
the sides of the tail being alike and the wings alike. The 
red feathers can be removed without detection and are 
commonly removed. The black stiff wing and tail feath- 
ers cannot be removed and their existence makes it neces- 
sary either to leave the bird out of consideration 

for exhibition, or 
to remove them 
and take the reg- 
ulation cut which 
is from 1 to 3 
points for each 
missing feather. 

Most Common 
Defects in Barred 
Rock Color— Part- 
ly black or white 
feathers in main 




tail and flights; partly or entirely black or white feathers 
in other parts of the plumage — that is, the barring lack- 
ing on a feather or part of a feather; unevenness of sur- 
face shade of color, due to different shades of dark or 
light color in different sections, or to difference in charac- 
ter of barring; coarseness and unevenness of barring; ir- 
regular barring; lack of clear definition in barring. 

These general statements of defects cover a great 
variety of variations from the ideal. It might be thought 
that such gross defects as red feathers or feathers to any 
extent lacking in barring, and therefore either black or 
white where the bars are missing, could all be discovered 
in a rapid examination of a bird. Experience shows that 
it is necessary to look quite as carefully for these faults 
as for those not so readily appreciable to the untrained 
eye. All these off-colored feathers are removable from 
the soft plumage, but not from the main tail, sickles or 
flights. 

The best breeders and judges of Barred Plymouth 
Rocks agree that the most important point in an exhi- 
bition bird is an even shade of color in all scetions. Pos- 
session of this is to a degree the result of the absence of 
some of the other defects mentioned. One even color all 
over the bird would not necessarily mean good color — a 
clean and attractive surface with pleasing contrast in 
barring; but as a matter of fact, a bird so well bred that 
it has the same general shade of color all over is quite 
free from bad faults in the other particulars. It may not 
have the finest finish in some of them, but has pretty 
good finish. So in selecting for exhibition color the first 
thing to do is to look for the most even-colored birds that 
appear decidedly blue. The most common variation from 
this in well-bred stock is in a brownish or greenish cast 
in the dark color, most conspicuous on the back, and 
usually more noticeable on the backs of males than else- 
where. Many otherwise remarkably good birds have this, 
and it may not be a handicap to them in competition un- 
less they are competing with very even-colored and blue 
looking birds. 

Evenness of color is generally associated with uni- 
formity of barring in all sections, but not necessarily with 
straight barring. The latter feature is perhaps the most 
difficult of all to secure, and comparatively few specimens 




BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK MARKINGS 

les of gen eral good duality. Right- 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



95 



have absolutely straight barring all over, and have at 
the same time the strong definition between the light and 
dark bars which brings out fully the beauty of barring of 
this character. In a great many cases the barring is 
straight but not clearly defined. Instead of two shades 
of color, each quite clean and distinct, the edges of the 
light and dark bars blend so that between light and dark 
there is a region, of varying width and intensity of color 
in different cases, that is of an intermediate shade. A bird 
like this may be even in general shade of color but will 
never look well in comparison with birds whose barring 
is of two different shades only, though slightly irregular 
in character. 

Approximate straightness in barring may be general 
in the rest of the plumage while in the hackle, and es- 
pecially in the hackle and saddle of the male, the bars 
have a wide V shape. While it is desirable to have the 
bars as straight here as in other sections, deficiency is 
so common that in ordinary competition a bird that has 
no worse fault in color is to be regarded as having a 
chance to win. Broken barring and shafting are very com- 
mon faults. In the first the bars on different sides of 
the quill do not match. In the other the quill does not 
carry the color of the dark bars but cuts each with a 
light line. 

Because of the difference in the structure of the parts 
of a feather that is exposed to the weather and that which 
is covered by other feathers, the barring in undercolor 
is never as clear-cut as in the surface but still should be 
conspicuous and distinct right down to the skin. There 
is a great deal of controversy about the merit of insist- 
ing upon strong underbarring, and one not versed in con- 
ditions at shows might get the impression from this that 
under some judges, at least, a bird very weak in that sec- 
tion would not be set back much on that account, and per- 
haps would not be set back at all. If one thinks that he 
has a bird that is about right in surface color but is plain- 
ly weak in undercolor, the probability is that his ideas of 
what constitutes good surface color need revising. 

Birds with the streiigth of color and narrowness of 
barring that have been favored in Barred Rocks for some 
years now almost invariably have pronounced barring in 



the undercolor. I would not say that such birds could 
not have weak undercolor, but I have never seen one that 
did have what could be called poor undercolor. Nor 
have I ever known a judge or expert breeder of Barred 
Plymouth Rocks who, however he might generalize about 
looking for surface color and letting undercolor come as 
it would, was really indifferent to good undercolor. I 
think the true explanation of the attitude of breeders and 
judges on this' point is that their attitude on the impor- 
tance of undercolor has been determined by their* ideas 
of surface color, and as a rule, those who would tolerate 
what they could not regard as anything but poor under- 
color wanted a much lighter surface than the others. Of 
late ye^ars there has been pretty general agreement on 
the relatively dark surface shade. 

In the main tail and flight feathers the barring was 
for a long time in the earlier history of this variety decid- 
edly poor, and one may still find here and there exhib- 
its and flocks of old-style Barred Rocks with poor bar- 
ring in the main tail feathers, and the flights "marbled" 
instead of barred. In the absence of better birds such 
sometimes win, and I have seen ribbons in some of the 
smaller New England shows within a few years on birds 
with a great deal of white at base of the tail and extend- 
ing up conspicuously on the main tail and sickles. The ex- 
hibitor whc has any stock of this kind should get out of it. 
He is too far behind of the times. In a variety of scant pop- 
ularity, in which no improvement is being made, one who 
likes it may get some satisfaction from winning with such 
birds as he has, but in a popular variety it is poor policy 
to do so. 

The precise shade of color desired in a Barred Rock 
is and probably always will remain a matter of difference 
of opinion. As popular taste changes from light to dark- 
er shades, all tastes follow the general trend, yet never 
do all agree on any particular shade. The Standard gives 
a definition of the color which if literally accepted by 
all would fix one 
shade of color, but 
the insistence of 
judges and breed- 
ers upon evenness 





-»■* 


..... ■ . -■ ■: ;. 


■HHgaM 


.^rtfes^ 


'^Pw*» ^^H^M^i ■^"""'(fc 








NVNm 


i I 






Left — Well-marked fe 
clean-cut dark tips. 



BARR»D PLYMOUTH ROCK MARKINGS 
c*rre*tpoadip<> *■ ,1lQ n*i—«Tked group on the opposite page. 
-Nicely marked tail feathers. 



Note that these all have distinct and 



96 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



of color as the most important thing tends to maintain all 
the variations in shade that can be found between the 
darkest and lightest birds used in breeding. In the 
selection of exhibition pens particularly, the neces- 
sity for matching male and females in color 
often makes it better to take a lighter shade than is 
considered Standard because one happens to be able to 
match a better pen in it. While there has always been 
and still continues to be much controversy about whether 
a Barred Rock is really blue in color or the blue is in 
the eye and imagination of the person looking at it, the 
fact remains that the birds that look blue, that are uni- 
form in shade of color and have straight clear, snappy 
barring, are the reliable winners. • 

The apparent surface color of a bird and the whole 
general appearance of the pattern depend much upon 
ihe order of the bars on the feathers, whether the first 
bar at the tip of the feather is light or dark; and also 



upon the uniformity of growth and the proper relative- 
length of feathers in adjacent parts. A bird with good 
dark bars at the tips of the feathers will show the char- 
acter on the surface which appears in the barring of 
the separate feathers. A bird with the same char- 
acter of barring and strength of color, but 
with the light bar at the tip, will show a much 
lighter and more uneven surface shade. When only a 
part of the feathers have light tips their removal may 
greatly improve the appearance of the bird. The much- 
prized "ringy" effect in barring produced by the bars on 
adjacent feathers matching, can often be greatly increased 
by a systematic examination of the whole plumage and the 
removal of feathers whose bars do not align regularly 
with those touching them. This work to be effective 




PENCILED HAMBURG BARRING 
Upper — Defective feathers from a second-prize hen. 
Lower — Well-marked feathers of the first-prize hen in tl 
same class. Besides showing good and poor quality these tv 
groups illustrate the possible range of quality in birds that win. 



DOMINIQUE AND CAMPINE BARRING 

Above — Dominique barring, ranging from coarse, irregular 

barring to a pattern resembling Barred Rock, but inferior in quality. 

Below — Campine barring. Left — Well-marked feather; center — 

white bar too wide; right — white bar too narrow, sometimes missing. 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



97 



requires eyeful and patient work with 
absolute certainty that the result of 
each removal of a feather will contri- 
bute to the result sought. The ringy 
character is primarily a matter of 
breeding and of full development of 
the plumage. Where it does not exist 
to a quite marked degree efforts to 
make it by plucking feathers are fruit- 
less. Where the white bars at the tips 
of feathers are quite narrow and faint, 
they are sometimes removed by trim- 
ming with scissors, or by singeing 
with a lighted cigar. A little of this 
work, carefully and well done, may be 
effective and pass unnoticed; but it 
can rarely be done to any consider- 
able number of feathers without the 
attention of the expert being caught 
by it when looking at the bird. 

Dominique Color — In the American 
Dominique color we have the only 
case where the Standard specifica- 
tions for color continue to call for a 
very inferior style of birds in one case, 
while in another case the same pattern 
has been brought to such perfection 
of finish as is seen in the Barred Ply- 
mouth Rock. Failure to improve 
Dominique color has been due to the 
erroneous idea of some breeders and 
their advisers that crude barring was 
a distinctive breed character of the 
Dominique, and to the further ill-ad- 
vised attempt to repopularize the 
breed as a barred variety in which 
double mating was not necessary to 
produce high quality in color. The 
reader who admires the Dominique 
for its breed merits and type, and 
wants to exhibit and promote interest 

in it, will find that permanent progress is made only by devel- 
oping Dominiques with the shape shown in the Standard but 




WELL-MARKED SILVER CAMPINE MALE FEATHERS 

with color characteristics of the Barred Plymouth Rocks. 
Color of Shanks and Toes — The males in this pattern 




SILVER CAMPINE FEMALE PEAT] 
with secondary barring. Cen ei — Poor li 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



generally have good shank color. Most females have 
some dark color on the shanks. Where strongest it 
gives the front and upper part of the shank a willow or 
greenish-yellow shade. Pullets which finally have pretty 
good leg color often have very dark, cloudy-looking shanks 
until about the time they begin to lay. As the color clears 
up a few dark spots' usually remain. These do not dis- 
qualify, but count as faults. They can be concealed by 
coloring. Judges generally are much more lenient to dark 
spots on the shanks of barred females than those not 
familiar with their work suppose they would be when 
judging according to the Standard, and many exhibitors 
make no effort to conceal dark spots. 

(Penciled) Barred Hamburgs — In this pattern the fe- 
male is barred on the surface everywhere but in the 
hackle, while the male has only a little indistinct barring 
on the body and fluff and wing coverts, with more dis- 
tinct barring on the upper webs of the secondaries. 
There are two varieties, Golden and Silver, the former 
having bay ground color, the latter white. The main tails 
of the males are black, the sickles edged with the ground 
color, and the flights are partly black. The black in both 
varieties is a lustrous, greenish black, and the undercolor 
in all sections in both sexes is slate. 

The interest in this type is limited to a few fanciers 
of great skill in breeding it, and while certain of these may 
be said to have superior lines, there is very little Penciled 
Hamburg stock of which it can be said that it is consti- 
tutionally poor in color quality. The faults in these vari- 
eties are principally those resulting from keeping and 
growing the stock in too close quarters. To show them 
in perfect condition requires the same attention to develop- 
ment of plumage and to the removal of defective feathers 
as in other patterns; but the lack of competition in them 
enables an exhibitor to win without this meticulous care 
at any show except where one of the breeders who always 
shows birds in prime condition is exhibiting. 

Campines — Silver and Golden — In this breed the 
birds of both sexes are barred everywhere but on the 
hackle, but instead of the bars being of uniform width the 
black bar is specified as (according to the section) three or 
four times the width of the light bar. The black is, as in 
the Hamburgs, a lustrous, greenish black. 

Most Common Defects— Barring at the base of the 
hackle; light bars in the rest of the plumage so narrow' 
that in some places they are broken by the joining of the 
black bars which they should sharply divide; light bars 
too wide, giving a coarse appearance; dullness and lack 
of luster in black color; smudginess in ground color. 

The beauty of this pattern is in brilliance of black col- 
or, cleanness and distinctness of light barring, and clean 
hackles. Dullness of color is in many cases due to the 
lack of vitality that characterizes much stock of this 
breed. Vigorous specimens usually have rich color and a 
high sheen. 

The silver variety is much better finished than the 
golden. This is in part due to the fact that the color is 
much more contrasty and the variety therefore more pop- 
ular and more extensively bred than the other, but a com- 
parison of the most pleasing specimens of the Golde-i 
that have been shown with other Goldens and with the 
best Silvers shows quite plainly that the most attractive 
Goldens are those that have the light bar a little -wider 
than the Standard specifies so that it stands out as clearly 
as the narrower bar in the Silver. 

Hackles free from an objectionable degree of bar- 
ring are quite rare. Indeed, it is only within a few years 



and in a few of the best finished stocks that # reaily nice 
hackles have been obtained with strong color in adjoin- 
ing sections. In general, where the hackle is free from 
barring, the front of the neck is lacking in barring and 
much too light in color. Judges will usually be easier on 
the fault in the hackle which the Standard treats leni- 
ently than upon the correlated fault for which it makes no 
exceptions. 

.Many specimens vary greatly in the character of bar- 
ring in different sections. In general, the tendency is to 
very heavy and relatively dense black bars on the back, 
more open barring on the breast, and still more open 
barring with failure of the black bars to preserve a sound 
color on the under and rear parts of the body. The black 
bars are sometimes more intense through the middle, giv- 
ing lighter or duller supplementary bars at each side. Or 
they may be broken by flecks of gray, or have bronze or 
purple barring in them. Except in the strongest com- 
petition in Silvers a creditable showing can be made with 
birds that are lacking in many of the fine points of col- 




WHITE FEATHERS FROM ERMINE PATTERN 
Left — Slate bar in undercolor. Right — White undercolor 

or finish, but have no very conspicuous fault in any one 
section. A Golden Campine that shows as much char- 
acter in barring as the average good exhibition Silver and 
has uniformity of surface and a fair quality of black col- 
or — even without high sheen — is a likely first or second in 
any competition. 
The Ermine Color Pattern — White with Black Points 

The varieties having a form of this general color 
pattern are: Light Brahma and Light Brahma Bantam; 
Columbian Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte; Black-Tailed 
White Japanese Bantam; and the non-Standard Light 
Sussex and Lakenvelder. The Brahmas, Rocks and Wy- 
andottes of this pattern have the same Standard specifi- 
cations for color. Broadly, the color specifications are: 
a white bird with black tail and black flights, the hackle 
having a black stripe, and tail covert's being black edged 
with white; and the undercolor a bluish slate. 

Disqualifications— Black or false-colored feather or 
feathers in the backs of females; black spots prevalent 
in the web of the feathers of the back where it should be 
white. 

The second of these provisions has been the subject 
of endless controversy, particularly among Light Brah- 
ma exhibitors, turning on the construction of the term 
prevalent. In the most explicit common usage of the 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



99 



term, prevalent means predominant — that is, more black 
spots than white surface. But it was obviously never the 
intent of the Standard to admit black in a white back to 
any such extent or even approaching it. The term is com- 
monly construed by fanciers to mean black spots or flecks 
appearing in the back to such an extent that the white 
surface is considerably marred in appearance. When it 
is taken in this sense, and the specimen given the pre- 
scribed benefit of the doubt as to whether the amount of 
black demands disqualification, there is a little diffi- 
culty in a fair application of the Standard. 

Most Common Defects — Black markings or feathers, 
or false-colored feathers where not a disqualification; 
white in black parts of tail and wings; poor striping in 
hackle, and coarse, ragged lacing on tail coverts; purple 
barring in black sections; brassiness and creaminess in 
white sections — especially in the white of the top color of 
males. 

The most common and persistent forms of the ap- 
pearance of undesired white in black sections is white at 
the base of the tail and in the wing flights. Absolute 
freedom from white in the tail extending part way up 
on the main tail feathers is rare in old cocks, but cock- 
erels of well-bred lines will show little if any white in new 
plumage. Entire white or gray feathers are much more 
likely to appear in the wings than in the tail. Good sound 
black color in flights is much more common in males 
than in females, which have a pronounced tendency to 
long patches of white in black webs. In old-style Light 
Brahmas black in the wing of females was not insisted 
upon to the extent that it is now in all these varieties. 
The insistence on black wings leads to the tolerance of 
more black or gray where white is re- 
quired, and the modern style in this 
pattern is not as white and clean in the 
white sections as the Light Brahma of 
a score of years ago. 

In the old-style bird purity of the 
white surface sections was sought be- 
fore anything else, and while good black 
and clean striping and lacing were de- 
sired the black was not allowed to en- 
croach upon white surfaces. In the 



modern style of this color pattern strength and richness 
of surface color, resulting from heavier striping in the 
hackle, better lacing on tail coverts and lesser coverts, and 
the substitution of strong striping in the saddles of males 
where before only light ticking was tolerated, are the 
things most sought, and with these the modern taste calls 
for extra-good black in wings, though the strength of 
pigmentation ordinarily needed to secure this commonly 
brings more black in white surfaces than is at all desirable. 

White or gray in black feathers may be concealed by 
painting or staining, but it does not appear that this is 
at all extensively practiced. The disposition to be more 
tolerant of black in the white areas leads breeders to pro- 
duce birds that have no extensive faults due to lack of 
pigment in black parts, thus reducing the occasions for 
temptation to color feathers, and bringing in more of the 
class of faults removable with the removal of soft feath- 
ers. The present taste also favors a wide stripe in the 
hackle, and is more tolerant of smutty edging on the 
hackles than the old style; and demands more laced 
feathers in the coverts of the tail as well as striping in 
the saddle of the male. Corresponding with the wide 
stripe in hackle, the tail coverts are designed to be as 
finely laced as possible and still have the white edging 
distinct, and the stripe in the saddle of the males splits 
or breaks into a V shape at the end toward the base ot 
the feather. The stripe that widens here and keeps the 
black center is regarded as doubly objectionable because 
it appears coarse, and because males with that character- 
istic produce females with an excessive amount of black 
in the back. 

A corresponding tendency of the stripe in the hackle 





FEATHERS FROM SADDLE AND TAIL OF ERMINE HALF. 
Left — Well-laced coverts and lesser coverts. Right — 1 — Sickle, all black: 2— Large covert, partly edged 
coverts, intermediate both in position and color between the tail ant" 
feathers. Note that 3-8 show the slate ba: 



addle feathers; 5, 6 — Long saddle feathe 



8 — Short saddle 



100 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 





HACKLE FEATHERS OP ERMINE FEMALE 
Left — Good stripe, but with the 



-Good stripe, but 
haracter appear 



HACKLE FEATHERS OF ERMINE MALE 

Left — Correct markings, good stripe with clean white edge. Center 

— A poorer stripe with a "break" of white across it 

close to the surface 

to break in the same manner is a common fault. The 
seriousness of the fault is largely determined by the lo- 
cation of the break. If it comes 
at or near the surface it makes 
a washed-out, faded-looking 
neck. If it is well down in the 
undercolor it will not materially 
reduce a birds chances of a place. 

Purple barring is very gen- 
eral in birds of this color pat- 
tern, and is most conspicuous in 
the tails of males. Breeders and 
judges do not like it. but unless 
it is very bad it does not set a 
good bird back much. Brassi- 
ness and creaminess are preva- 
lent in the Plymouth Rocks and 
Wyandottes, less so — but still 
considerably in evidence — in the 
Light Brahmas. Light Brahma 
Bantams of good color are quite 
rare. 

Black-Tailed White Japa- 
nese Bantams are a modification 
of this color pattern, in which 
only the black tail and a part of 
the black in the wings remains. 
While a few nicely finished spec- 
imens are sometimes shown, in 



edge too wide: a hackle 
heavily spangled rather than 
striped and is not at all attractive. Center — Of much the same 
character as the feather at the left, but not clearly marked, and 
having the black cut nearlv through the white at the tip; a neck 
of this character will be black and smutty looking. Right — Poor 
striping divided by white on quill extending into the web. When 
such feathers are prevalent in a hackle it appears a dirty gray. 
The figures above these feathers give a judge's estimate of the 
proper cut on hackle for each of these three faults prevalent in it 

general it takes only very mediocre quality to win. 

Color of Shanks and Toes — Good color in this sec- 
tion is common in all varieties of this pattern. An oc- 
casional specimen has flesh-colored or pale yellow legs, 
but it is seldom that these are good enough in other 
characters to make it necessary to consider the possi- 
bility of changing leg color. 

Miscellaneous Color Patterns 
There are numerous variations or combinations ot 
patterns that have been considered which do not fit read- 
ily into any of the groups where a number of varieties 
of different breeds can be considered together. As a rule, 




FLIGHT FEATHERS OF 
'imary. Below — A fair sec 



THE ERMINE COLOR PATTERN 
mdnry. In both feathers there is a little 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



101 



these are of limited popularity and interest, and refine- 
ments of color do not often figure in judging them. In the 
cases where this is not so, the color points are points that 
have been treated in some of the foregoing statements. 
Hence, all that is necessary here is to mention the vari- 
eties and call attention to the few points in connection with 
each where knowledge of what experts do with it is 
helpful to a novice. 

White-Crested Black Polish— The black color on this 
fowl is in all respects the same as on all-black fowls. The 
white crest is rarely naturally all white, but is more cr less 
mixed with black at the base. The 
black feathers are plucked. A bird 
with so many of them that their re- 
moval would leave plain gaps in the 
plumage and spoil the shape of the 
crest is not suitable for exhibition. 

Colored Dorking — The Colored 
Dorking as described in the Standard 
is a dark brownish-gray fowl, of rath- 
er variable shades and markings. In 
judging this variety awards are made 
almost entirely on size and type. 
There is not enough competition in it 
to bring questions of color into con- 
sideration. 

Salmon Faverolles — The male in 
this variety_has.hlack breast^and body 
with uneven straw top color more or 
less mixed with brown and black. The 
female is a brownish drab of varying 
depth and intensity, not at all uniform 
in either shade or markings. The pat- 
tern is very crude and irregular, and 
no refinements of color enter into 
consideration in judging. 

Birchen Games and Game Ban- 
tams and Gray Japanese Bantams — 
Thi female in this pattern is black 
with hackle white with a black stripe. 
The male has the black breast laced 
with a narrow edging of white, ana 
the hackle and back white with nar- 
row black stripe. The few specimens 
seen are usually gray-black in color 
with lacing and striping not especially 
good. Occasionally a very nice speci- 
men appears. There is rarely a com- 
petitive exhibit. 

Red Pyle Leghorns, Exhibition Games and Game 
Bantams — In this pattern the male has an orange-red 
hackle, red back and orange saddle, red wing bows, red 
lower webs of primaries and secondaries. The female has 
a salmon breast and a "gold" edging on the hackle. The 
rest of the plumage is white. To one not familiar with 
the birds as ordinarily seen the Standard description 
conveys ideas of quality in color that are seldom realized. 
The colors are too uneven and the specifications too 
suggestive of faults in other color patterns to be at- 
tractive. As a novelty a few birds of these varieties add to 
the variety of a show. Once in a while a really attractive 
specimen appears. In general, an exhibitor meets no 
competition and anything that passes as fairly typical 
will win. The Games and Game Bantams are usually 
excellent in type. The few Leghorns seen here are most- 
ly quite lacking in Leghorn type and character. 



Buttercup — Yellow fowls with cup combs have been 
known in this country under various names, most fre- 
quently as "Buttercups" from a very early day. No par- 
ticular interest was developed in them until about 1910 
when a few breeders began to exploit them, and as the 
number of interested persons increased an effort was made 
to establish them with a unique color pattern and dis- 
tinctive markings. Considerable differences of opinion 
and of pattern were developed. The style which appears 
likely to find common acceptance is a pattern which may 
be regarded as produced by increasing the light shafting 




BfTTERCrP FEATHERS 
: Male breast, lesser tail covert, wing bow. saddle and thigh 
r marked female feathers. Right: Well-marked female feathers 

and edging on a Penciled Hamburg type of barred plum- 
age until the bar on each side of the quill becomes an 
oval spot. Considering this as the accepted standard 
for the female (the male being marked as in the Penciled 
Hamburgs) the color being buff or bay with dark mark- 
ings: 

The Most Ccmmon Defects are: wrong character of 
of markings — sometimes general indistinctness of mark- 
ing, in other cases the form taken being more that of 
broken heavy penciling that follows the contour of the 
feather. In the present state of breeding of this pattern 
uniformity of the spots and some distinctness in con- 
trast between them and the ground are the principal 
things to consider in selectiog for exhibition. The next 
most serious fault is unevenness of color and generally lack 
of richness of tone in the ground color. The greater 
number of females have a washed-out appearance that is 
not attractive. 



102 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




PEKIN DUCKS 

DUCKS 
Pekin Ducks 

Disqualifications — Black marks on the bill of the 
drake. 

This is one of the disqualifications "over which there 
has been much controversy. At times 
ducks as well as drakes have been dis- 
qualified for it. Breeders are generally 
agreed that the largest and most vigor- 
ous birds are likely to have some dark 
color in the bill — if only in the bean at 
the tip — and all but the smallest and 
weakest females will, as a rule, have 
some dark color in the bill after the 
first annual molt. Insistence upon the 
disqualification appears to be due large- 
ly to the tendency of American Poultry 
Association members not concerned in 
matters like this to resist anything that 
looks like a "letting down of the bars" 
against faults of this character. Judges 
who are themselves breeders are apt to 
be very liberal in applying this disquali- 
fication, construing the Standard to 
mean that only positive black disqualifies — that a greenish 
or grayish mark is not a disqualification, The marks are 
in some cases removable by scraping and sandpapering, 
and some exhibitors will remove them even when they 



know the judge who is too pass on the class 
is lenient, simply because they like the clean 
bill and wish to make the bills of the birds 
they show look as well as possible. 

Common Defects — Lack of size and type; 
in large birds lack of typical carriage. Large, 
heavy birds tend to carry the body nearly 
horizontal instead of somewhat elevated in 
front, as the Standard requires. This require- 
ment is of considerable practical importance, 
for the strength and vitality that enable the 
Pekin to maintain the slightly elevated carri- 
age of body are what gives it preeminence 
for commercial duck growing. 
Aylesbury Ducks 

Disqualifications — Bill of drake marked 
with black. 

Most Common Defects — Yellowish bills; 
lack of size and type. 

There is practically no interest in this 
breed in the United States, the Pekin being in 
every way preferred. Because it is in the 
Standard most of the leading shows regularly provide 
classification for it, but there are rarely more than one or 
two pairs seen, even at our largest shows. Anything that 
will pass as an Aylesbury can win almost anywhere. Once 
in many years an exhibitor with poor birds of this breed 





ROUEN DUCKS 



AYLESBURY DUCKS 

might run into a class where he would get nothing, but 
there has not been a class of more than four or five birds 
at a leading winter show in this country since 1891. 
Rouen Ducks 

Disqualifications — Bill of clean color — yel- 
low, dark green, blue or lead color. 

The bill of the drake is a greenish yellow, 
that of the duck a brownish orange with a blue 
blotch near the head. The bean in both sexes 
may be black. The pigmentation of the bills 
corresponds in part with that of the plumage, 
and as that is of a character that gives occasion 
frequently for double mating for Standard color 
there is a tendency toward yellow bills in the 
lighter-colored birds and green, blue or lead- 
colored bills in the darker ones. It also frequent- 
ly happens that bills will come of one plain color 
without any apparent close correlation with the 
color of the plumage. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and 
type. 

The Standard has the same weights for the 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF 

Pekin, Aylesbury and Rouen, but outside of the stocks 
of the few breeders who show birds of high quality in 
color, and who have kept up size, the ducks shown as 
Rouens are commonly much underweight and with the 
style of a common duck. 

Cayuga Ducks 

Disqualifications — None except as given under « 
general disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size. The Stand- 
ard Cayuga should be almost as large as the three fore- 
going breeds. Nearly all ducks shown as Cayugas are 
much under Standard weight. There is little interest 
in the breed and, as a rule, any medium-sized black 
duck can be shown as a Cayuga and win. 

Call Ducks 

Disqualifications — None except as general disquali- 
fications may apply. 

Most Common Defects — There are no faults of 
much consequence. These "bantam ducks" are bred 
and exhibited mostly by fanciers. 

Black East India Ducks 

Disqualifications — None except as general disqual- 
ifications apply. 

Most Common Defects — None. The few persons 
interested in the breed carefully maintain breed char- 
acter. 
Muscovy Ducks 

Disqualifications — Smooth heads; plumage more than 
half white in the colored variety; feathers other than pure 
white in the white variety. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size in the females. 
This breed is peculiar in that the females are normally 
much smaller than the males of the same breeding. Ex- 
hibitors seem rather prone to exaggerate the difference, 
and to select very small females. An exhibit is more at- 
tractive if the females are of good size. 
Blue Swedish Ducks 

Disqualifications — Yellow bills. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size. 
Crested White Ducks 

Disqualifications — None other than the general dis- 
qualifications which apply. 




BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 103 

Buff Ducks 

Disqualifications — None except as general disqual- 
ifications apply. 

Most Common Defects — None in shape or size. 
The variations from Standard requirements in these points 
are small, partly no doubt because the interest in the 




PENCILED INDIAN RUNNER DUCK FEATHERS 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size, many of the 
birds shown being far below the Standard requirements 
for weight. 



PAWN AND WHITE INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS 

breed is so far mostly confined to breeders having some 
confidence in their own ability to breed buff color. 
Indian Runner Ducks 

Disqualifications — Black in bean of white drakes. 

Most Common Defects — Coarseness and lack of typ- 
ical carriage. The carriage should be very erect; the 
bird small, as compared with the breeds cultivated for 
table purposes; active and energetic, handling itself much 
better on the ground than any others except the Muscovy. 
These characteristics can be developed only by giving the 
ducks a good deal of room to forage, and letting them 
pick a considerable part of their living. Heavy feeding 
as in growing table ducks will spoil the Runner type be- 
fore the bird is grown. 

COLOR AND COLOR PATTERN FAULTS 
White Varieties 

There are white varieties in the following breeds of 
ducks: Pekin, Aylesbury, Muscovy, Runner and Crested. 

Disqualifications — In White Pekin, Crested, Runner 
and Call Ducks: feathers other than white or creamy 
white. In White Aylesbury and Muscovy Ducks: feath- 
ers other than white. 

Off-colored feathers in the soft plumage are remov- 
able. 

Most Common Defects — Creaminess in varieties that 
should be pure white, and excessive yellow in those 
which should be creamy white. These faults can be re- 
duced or removed as desired by washing or bleaching be- 
fore exhibition. As a rule, competition in ducks is not 
keen. At times when there is special interest in a breed 
or variety large classes come out, competition is strong in 
them and rapid progress is made in the finishing of ex- 
hibition points, both by breeding and in conditioning. 
Such interest however, has never been long maintained in 
any case, and as a result exhibitors generally do not have 
to be as particular, and are not as particular about fit- 
ting ducks for exhibition as they are in fitting fowls. 
A few exhibitors make a practice of putting everything 
they show in good condition; most go only as far as is 



104 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



necessary for the competition they have to meet. 
Black and Black-and- White Varieties 

There are black varieties in the following breeds: 
Cayuga and East Indian; and in the Muscovy the colored 
variety is predominantly black, the rest of the plumage 
being white. 

Disqualifications — In the two black varieties: white 




MALLARD DRAKE 
pattern which is also characte 



ducks as "a rich fawn buff." This color is specified ex- 
cept for the head of the drake which should be ''seal 
brown." Few buff ducks are bred or exhibited in this 
country, and the exhibits sometimes described as good in 
color are so only by comparison with the ordinary buff 
duck. By the standards for buff color applied to fowls 
they are far from good. This is to be expected, for the col- 
or is new in ducks and is a difficult 
one to produce. 
Blue Varieties 

The only blue (so-called) variety 
of ducks recognized in the Standard is 
the Blue Swedish. The Blue Mus- 
covy Ducks sometimes seen come 
from crosses of the White and Color- 
ed Muscovy. They are blue all over 
and often a very nice even blue. 

Disqualifications — In Blue Swed- 
ish; absence of white patch on the up- 
per part of the breast; more than one- 
fourth of the plumage other than blue 
in color. 

Most Common Defects — White 
in other parts of the plumage than the 
patch on the breast and two flight 
feathers in each wing; presence of 
other shades with blue; lack of uni- 
formity of blue shade. 

The Standard calls for a "steel 



in any part of the plumage. In the 
Colored Muscovy: plumage more 
than half white. 

Most Common Defects — Gray 
or red in plumage; purple barring; 
lack of luster. 

Red and gray in the plumage of 
black ducks very commonly take the 
form of rustiness or slaty color in 
the black. Many birds that look 
pretty well when not seen in compari- 
son with one of tine sheen, appear 
decidedly dingy when in competi- 
tion with Standard-colored speci- 
mens. In the Colored Muscovy the 
amount and location of black are not 
specified; but judges generally ap- 
pear to favor the birds that are near- 
ly black and have the white marks 
symmetrical — regular in form and 
the same on both sides of the bird 
or a section. 
Buff Varieties 

The one variety of this color can 
hardly be said to be of any particu- 
lar breed. It most nearly resembles 
the Swedish Duck in breed charac- 
teristics. 

Disqualifications — Presence of 
any color but buff or seal brown. 
This obviously applies to white, 
gray, red or black in any distinct 
form. 

Most Common Defects — Lack 
of uniformity and evenness and 
soundness of color; penciling. 

The Standard describes buff in 




ROUEN DRAKE FEATHERS FROM WING AND TAIL 
Left — Secondary flight showing the distribution of color which gives the 
ects on the wing. Next- Plain secondary above the ribbon. Next — Tail f 
rled tail feather which distinguishes drakes from ducks when the sexes are of the same color. 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



105 




FEATHERS OF f 
Above — Primary flight. Below — Left to right: Bark, wing 

blue" except that the head-of the drake is a darker blue 
approaching black. Specimens that conform to this re- 




ROUEN DRAKE FEATHERS . 
-Large, soft, upper body feather. Below — Left to right: Breast, small lower bod 
back near tail, secondary wing covert 



ROUEN DUCK 
how, breast, body, fluff, wing secondary coverts (2). tail 

quirement when exactly applied are not seen. The best 
birds are darker on the back than elsewhere and often 
run very light on the underside of the 
body. Most birds shown are decided- 
ly patchy in appearance but birds with 
any considerable traces of color other 
than blue or white, or with extensive 
white where it is not called for by the 
Standard, are rarely shown. 
Fawn and White 

This combination of colors in a 
definite pattern is made Standard with 
a plain fawn color in the Fawn and 
White Runner, and with a penciled 
fawn color in the Penciled Runner. 
Both varieties come honestly by the 
faults which are relics of their com- 
mon ancestry. 

Disqualifications — In both varie- 
ties: claret breast; blue wing bar. In 
penciled variety: bright green head. 

Most Common Defects — Irregular 
distribution of the fawn and white 
colors — not as required in the Standard 
and shown in ideal illustrations; pen- 
ciling or mealiness in plain fawn col- 
or; absence of penciling in penciled 
fawn color; mealiness in penciled sec- 
tions; unevenness of color except as 
due to the specifications which allow 
darker penciling on back and wings of 
females and stippling here in males. 

To go into a detailed considera- 
tion of these defects would be unnec- 
essary repetition of the discussion of 
buff and red colors and of penciled 
patterns in fowls. The general fea- 
tures are the same. There is this dif- 



106 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



ference, however, that the separation of these varieties of 
ducks is so recent that the penciled pattern is rather rudi- 
mentary as compared with penciled patterns in fowls or in 
trie Rouen Duck, and what would be poor penciling in 
these might be as good as is found in Runner Ducks. 
Rouen (Penciled) Ducks — In this variety we have the 
color of the female corresponding in a general way with 
that of the Partridge varieties of fowls, and there is similar 
difficulty in finding males and females of equally high 
exhibition quality in the offspring of the same mating 




EMDEN AND A 
TOULOUSE GANDER 

While long experience and skill, and continuous selection 
for the characteristic of producing equally good birds 
of both sexes from birds very near the Standard enables 
some exhibitors to do it, in selection from average good 
single-mated stock an exhibitor will usually find he is a lit- 
tle weak in either males or females, and perhaps in both. 
Until he finds out just how his stock compares with that 
of others he may wisely choose the shows where classes 
are comparatively large and entry fees low. This combi- 
nation is oftenest found at some of the large fall fairs. 

Disqualifications — White in flights; white ring, or 
suggestion of same on the neck of the duck. 

Most Common Defects — Absence or serious deficiency 
of white ring on the neck of the drake; colors of the drake 
so dark that their rich contrasts do not show; or so light 
that it has a faded appearance. In the female: lack of 
distinctness of penciling and of evenness and depth of both 
ground and darker color. 

The Standard for color for both males and females 
allows — apparently — more latitude for variation in differ- 
ent sections than is regarded as allowable in the partridge 
color in fowls. The males that are most likely winners 
are those that are intermediate in color with distinct con- 
trasts between sections differing in color. A well-marked 
white ring on the neck adds much to the appearance,- of 
a bird, and in the English Standard absence of the ring 
may disqualify. One of the most objectionable features 
in color of the duck is a washy looking ground — especially 
on the breast and body — with coarse and indistinct pencil- 
ing. Wide penciling is desired, but it should be distinct. 
Unless a light-colored duck happens to be uncommonly 
clean and strong in penciling, it is good policy to give the 
preference in choosing to the ducks with rich warm colors, 



even though not quite as distinctly penciled as one might 
desire. 

GEESE 
In geese the number of breeds and varieties is so small 
that we will consider each separately, and for shape and 
color together. 
Toulouse Geese: Size and Shape 

Disqualifications — None other than general and weight 
disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and type; too 
fine bone and build — lacking the mas- 
siveness of appearance which should 
characterize the breed; lack of depth of 
keel; absence of dewlap in old birds. 

To show and win in the best com- 
petition in this breed one must have 
birds that are fully up to Standard 
weights — and as much above them as he 
can get. The principal exhibitors of 
Toulouse Geese are men who exhibit 
the same remarkably good specimens 
in old-bird classes year after year. In 
all classes but those for young speci- 
mens an uncommonly good bird is a 
fairly reliable winner for a long term of 
years; and the exhibitors who have such 
birds usually have young birds from 
them for the young-bird classes. Hence, 
the exhibitor who has not this class of 
stock should pick shows where his birds 
will not be out-classed. 

Color Disqualifications — White 
feathers in flights. 

Common Color Defects — Xone in 
well-bred stock. In some of the ordinary, somewhat mon- 
grelized Toulouse — which are by no means typical of the 
breed and have no place in a good competition, but which 
sometimes help fill out and add to the interest of small 
shows where good exhibits of geese cannot be obtained — 
there is a decidedly drab tone to the gray color. This 
should be avoided as far as possible, but it is not desirable 
to insist on a clear gray if doing so means giving the pref- 
erence in selection to birds lacking in size and shape. 
Emden Geese: Size and Shape 

Disqualifications — None other than general and weight 
disqualifications. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size. As in the case 
of the Toulouse, the best exhibition birds are larger than 
the Standard calls for. Some have the massiveness of 
the Toulouse, but as a rule the birds are not conspicuous 
for that .characteristic, but are more on the lines of the 
common goose — though larger and more substantial. 

Color Disqualifications — Any other color than white 
in the plumage, except a little gray in the backs and wings 
of young birds. 

Most Common Color Defects — Gray in plumage. 
This is removable in soft plumage, .but unless it is quite 
conspicuous and competition keener than usual exhibitors 
do not give much attention to it. Color counts for much 
less in exhibition geese than size and shape, and judges 
are rarely disposed to pay attention to small points in 
color. 
African Geese: Size and Shape 

Disqualifications — Absence of knob on the bill, or of 
dewlap on the throat. 

Most Common Defects — Lack of size and type. The 
African Goose, so-called, is a product of a mixture of the 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



107 



Brown China with Toulouse and common geese It can 
hardly be said to be a distinct breed, for most of the spec- 
imens shown under the name come from flocks of more or 
less mixed character. The Chinese type, which is next 
considered, is distinctive. Some authorities on geese have 
tried to make different forms of the knob peculiar to 
these two breeds, but the difference they denote 
in the position of the knob is purely an in- 
dividual difference common to both breeds, 
and the Standard does not specify any particular 
form of knob for either. The Standard difference 
is in the insistence upon the dewlap in the Afri- 
can, and in size. 

Color Disqualifications — White feathers in 
nights. 

Most Common Defects in Color — Much 
lighter color than is indicated by the Standard 
specifications, and a decided brownish tint all 
over the bird. The Standard does not specify 
brown or any shade of brown in color. The 
writer cannot recall ever seeing an African 
goose that was not noticeably brown. 
Chinese Geese 

There are two color varieties of this breed 
— Brown and White. 

Disqualifications for Shape — Absence of knob. 

Most Common Defects in Shape — None. The spec- 
imens of this breed seen are very generally near Standard 
size and of good type. 

Color Disqualifications — In the Brown variety: 
white feathers in flights. In the White variety: feathers 
other than pure white in any part of the plumage. This 
disqualification construed literally, excludes any trace of 
color other than white. Traces of gray usually are found, 
when present, in the neck and back, and can often be elim- 
inated by the removal of feathers containing them. Judges 
are not uniformly strict in applying this disqualification 
and where there is no competition, or where those in the 
limited competition are not disposed to insist on rigid 
application of disqualifications, not much attenton is paid 
to a few traces of gray. 

Most Common Defects in Color — In the Brown vari- 
ety:" white in the plumage. In many cases this is re- 
movable. Where it is not, and is not a disqualification, 
neither exhibitors nor judges are very fussy about it. 

In the White variety: gray — regarded as a defect, not 
a disqualification. 



Canadian, or Wild Geese 

Disqualifications — None except general disqualifi- 
cations. 

Most Common Defects — None so conspicuous as to 
require mention. This is not an improved domestic race, 
but the wild species in captivity. Few competitive classes 




EMDEN GEESE 

appear. As a rule, any bird conforming in a general way 
to the type and to the Standard description is placed, and 
the precedence is given to the largest and most impressive 
looking birds. 
Egyptian Geese 

This is another wild race, in which there is practically 
no competition. The specimens seen at shows are most- 
ly in the exhibits of "string men," or in collections of fancy 
waterfowl. 

TURKEYS 

All varieties of turkeys have the same shape de- 
scription. The differences in- weights for different vari- 
eties represent common differences in size — due to dif- 
ferences in popularity and to the development of large 
size and high vitality as a result of competition. 

Shape Disqualifications — None but general and weight 
disqualifications. 

Common Defects in Shape — Lack of size, and of the 
fullness and ruggedness of form that goes with good devel- 
opment. Big strong, vigorous-looking birds always get 
first consideration, and unless noticeably poor in some point 





AFRICAN GEESE 



WHITE CHINA GEESE 



108 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION' 



of color will win over birds lacking in size and apparent 
vitality, no matter how good in color the latter may be. 
Bronze Turkeys 

Color Disqualifications — White feathers in any part 
of the plumage; black or brown flight feathers; clear 
black, brown or gray, in back, tail-coverts, or tail: absence 




WING AND TAIL FEATHERS OF TOULOUSE GEESE 

of barring on more than half the length of a primary wing 
feather. 

Most Common Color Defects — Lack of brilliance and 
uniformity in the general bronze surface color; white or 
gray bars in main tail feathers in addition to the white 
tip; lack of black bar next the white in tail coverts; de- 
fective barring in tail and flights. 

These faults are not likely to be present to a trouble- 
some degree in highly bred stock, but a great deal of 
Bronze Turkey stock is really grade stock, with common 
or inferior Bronze blood only a few generations back. In 
such stock richness of color and finish in all minor details 
is rare. The birds may appear to be 
very good Bronze until compared 
with high-quality Standard birds. At 
the same time, these high-grade flocks 
often contain individuals quite perfect 
in bronze color, and usually have a 
large proportion that if well grown 
and of full size can win over ordinary, 
rather poorly developed Bronze speci- 
mens, if the exhibitor is careful to 
avoid showing birds with pronounced 
small faults in color. In most shows 
that get a good display the Bronze 
make the largest and strongest class. 
The exhibitor of this variety should 
either have stock fit for the best com- 
petition, or elect to show where the 
class is small and ordinary. 

Narragansett Turkeys 



extinct. I have been informed that there are some of good 
type to be seen occasionally at some of the near-West 
shows. I have seen none shown under this name for years 
that could properly be said to be representative of the 
Xarragansett Turkey, either as it was before the Bronze 
displaced it generally or as it is described in the Standard. 
The specimens shown as Narragan- 
setts, as far as I have seen them, have 
simply been common gray turkeys. 
White Holland Turkeys 

These are, after the Bronze, our 
most popular variety of turkeys. 

Color Disqualifications — Foreign 
color in any part of the plumage. 

Most Common Color Defects — 
Xone other than disqualifications, 
which are to a large extent removable. 
Most of the White Turkeys seen at 
ihows are not subject to much criti- 
cism for quality of color. Their princi- 
pal fault is lack of size. Many magnifi- 
cent big white birds are shown, but on 
the whole the Whites are distinctly in- 
ferior to the Bronze in development. 
Black Turkeys 

Color Disqualifications — Feathers 
other than black in any part of the 
plumage. 

Most Common Color Defects — 
Lack of intensity of black color. Most 
of the few Black Turkeys shown here 
are dingy and dull in color, small, and 
very inferior in every way to the 
Bronze and White. 
Slate Turkeys 
Color Disqualifications — "Feathers other than slaty or 
ashy-blue, which may be dotted with black, in any part of 
the plumage." 

Slate Turkeys as we have them can hardly be considered 
an established variety. There are a few breeders who have 
given some attention to breeding them, but much of the 
stock exhibited as Slate is simply slate-colored specimens 
from flocks with some variety in colors. Some of these 
specimens are remarkably good — often better than any to be 
found in Slate flocks. The possessor of a Slate Turkey that 
conforms reasonably closely to the Standard description of 
color, and is fair in size and shape, can win with it anywhere. 




This variety is nearly if not quite 



BODY FEATHERS OF TOULOUSE GEESE 
ight — Light gray, dark gray, dark gray edged with light gray 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



109 



Bourbon Red Turkeys 

Color Disqualifications — More than one-fourth of 
color other than white in main tail feathers or flights. 

Most Common Color Defects — Lack of depth and uni- 
formity of red color; lack of purity of white color 
where required. 

This is a comparatively new color type and difficult 
to produce in high finish. Birds that are really good in 
color when the Standard is critically applied are not of- 
ten found, but many specimens are quite attractive for 
quality in some sections and, as a good proportion of the 
stock seen has good size and development, there is much 
more interest in it than in any other color after the Bronze 
and White. In selecting birds for exhibition the breeder 
will find it the best policy to choose birds that are of good 
size, rugged looking, and with strength of color in the red 
sections, even if in taking it he sacrifices something of 
purity in the white. 

Trying out Single Birds and Matching Pens 

Having gone through all the stock of presumed ex- 
hibition quality that he has, and selected the specimens 
which individually show enough quality to entitle them 
to consideration where prizes are being given, the ex- 
hibitor still has before him the problem of deciding which 
are his most likely winners in the competition for which 
he is preparing. This involves some nice discrimination 
and careful balancing of the actual merits and demerits 
of birds, as well as consideration of the possible prefer- 
ences of judges, and of showroom conditions which may 
affect the conspicuousness of faults or detract from the 
appearance of attractive points. 

As to the whims of judges, unless one has before ex- 
hibiting had the advantage of an opportunity to carefully 
look over the work of one or more judges of the variety 
he is exhibiting, who are likely to judge where he is to 





BRONZE TURKEY FEMALE 



show, he has to leave it out of consideration and take 
his chances with such birds as seem to him to best meet 
Standard requirements. Opportunity to study the work 
of judges is usually also opportunity to observe the birds 
under the showroom conditions which interest the new 
exhibitor; but if he has failed to observe these, or if the 
opportunity to do so has not been presented, he can reduce 
his disadvantage here very materially by making a point 
of studying all the birds he has selected as worth ex- 
hibition under as many conditions of light as possible, giv- 
ing special attention to color in both bright and poor, dull 
lights; and to shape as seen at different angles of ele- 
vation from the floor. 

Effect of Different Lights 

There are great differences in the conditions of light 
in different showrooms, in the same showroom under 
different conditions of external light, and also in different 
parts of the showroom on the same day. On 
the whole, the light in showrooms is not 
as good as the ordinary daylight conditions 
under which the birds are examined at home. Very tew 
of the buildings or halls in which poultry shows are held 
are well lighted by daylight. The best conditions are 
found in the buildings erected especially for poultry shows 
at the large fall fairs, in some of which the light is in gen- 
eral excellent. Even in these the light is none too good 
on a dull day, and there are always parts of the hall 
<vhere the light is unsatisfactory. 

As far as time, circumstances and his strength permit, 
a judge, as a rule, makes it a point to examine or compare 
all birds under the same conditions of light. But it is 
nevertheless good policy for the exhibitor to give the pre- 
ference as far as consistent with consideration of other 
matters that have to be taken into account — to the birds 
that show to best advantage under various conditions of 



110 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION' 



light. As an exhibitor studies his birds to determine this 
point he will find the differences in this respect are more 
common and greater than he had supposed and further, 
that this line of criticism of color helps him greatly in 
determining which birds are the soundest and most even 
in color. Nearly all breeders have preferences for certain 
shades of color and in selecting tend to take the shade they 
like even though color is more or less unsound, rather 
than sounder color in a lighter or darker shade. Sound 
color may not look equally well in all lights, but it will 
look better than unsound color in most lights, and the less 
a bird is dependent upon certain light conditions to show 
its merits the better its chances of winning. 
Effect of Angle of Vision 

Where the coops for single birds are all on the same 
level — that is, where the floor space in the* showroom is 
great enough to allow arranging all the coops in a single 
tier — only two elevations 
have to be considered in 
judging how a bird will look 
from the aisle: that of the 
single bird coops at about 30 
to 36 inches from the floor, 
and that of the coops for ex- 
hibition pens at about 18 to 
24 inches from the floor. 
When space is so limited that 
two or more tiers of coops 
must be used for the single 
birds, none of them are seen 
at the same angle as in a 
show that is single tiered, or 
as it is sometimes called "sin- 
gle decked," these terms re- 
ferring always to the ar- 
rangement of the single-bird 
coops. Except at small shows 
with very limited room the 
pen coops are not often dou- 
ble tiered, nor are the coops 
for single large fowls and 
ducks often placed in more 
than two tiers, but shortage 
of space in large shows fre- 
quently leads to Bantam 
coops being in three tiers. 

Ordinarily, however, the 
exhibitor has to consider that 
in sending his fowls to a 

show where double tiering is white Holland 

used the single birds will be at either about the same ele- 
vation as the pen birds, or the height of an exhibition 
coop higher. A bird that is approximately correct in type, 
and that naturally and quite constantly poses well, will 
show to good advantage in either an upper or lower 
coop, though perhaps not as well in either as at the usual 
height of single-tiered coops. A bird that is a little high 
in station, or one that is narrow bodied, or lacking in 
breast, or a coop-shy bird that hugs the corner of the 
coop when approached, will look much worse in an upper 
than in a lower coop. The elevation exaggerates the faults 
mentioned, and the open top of the upper coop and the 
greater amount of light in it make a shy bird act worse 
there than in the darker and more protected lower, coop. 

A bird that is low on the legs, and rather full in form, 
has these charcteristics apparently exaggerated in a lower 
coop, while in an upper coop he will look at least as well, 




and possibly better than at the usual height of single- 
tier coops. 

The difference in light in upper and lower coops is 
also an important factor in its effect on observation of 
color. While, as has been said, the judge does his best 
to give every bird equal opportunities, it is manifestly 
impossible for him to do so to an extent that will offset 
all possible disadvantages to birds from being placed in 
places unfavorable to them. The exhibitor must look af- 
ter his own interest to the extent of doing everything in his 
power to put his birds where they will show to best ad- 
vantage. When showing where the show is single tiered 
he must as far as possible enter in the single-bird classes 
birds that look well at the elevation of the single-bird coops, 
and in pens birds that look well at the elevation of the pens. 
When showing where the show is double tiered he must eith- 
er send single birds that are so near Standard in shape that 
it makes little difference 
whether they are cooped in an 
upper or lower coop, or he 
must send for an upper coop 
a bird that looks well in an 
upper coop and for a lower 
coop a bird that looks well in 
a lower coop — and he should 
either see to it himself or get 
some dependable person who 
is on the spot to see to it that 
the birds are placed right. 

It happens not infre- 
quently that an exhibitor 
sends to a show where the 
coops are double tiered birds 
that — whether he understood 
the situation and intended to 
provide for it or not — should 
be placed, one in an upper 
the other in a lower coop — 
and in cooping them each 
bird is placed where it ought 
not to go. In such a case I 
have known a judge, after 
awarding a prize to a bird so 
misplaced and learning from 
the catalogue that the owner 
has another entry in the same 
class, to change a bird to a 
coop where it would show to 
best advantage. The judge, 
of course, has a personal in- 
terest in doing this. It is not to his interest to have a 
bird he awards a prize placed where it does not look its best. 
Where the coops for single birds are in two tiers the 
consecutive numbers are never in the same tier, so one 
who enters two birds in a class is always sure that one 
will be placed in an upper and one in a lower coop. Mak- 
ing a single entry in a class, one can never know until he 
arrives at the show whether his bird will draw an upper 
or a lower coop. With three entries in a class he" does 
not know whether he will get two uppers or two lowers. 
With an even number of entries in the same class he al- 
ways knows that he will ha\ e equal numbers of each. 

Reference has been made to the effect of the differ- 
ence in light in upper and lower coops upon observation 
of some faults of color. There are also some character- 
istics of color that vary in appearance according to the 
elevation of the bird just as the characteristics of shape 



TURKEY MALE 



DEFINITE SELECTION OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



111 



which have been mentioned do. A bird with a breast 
very good in color, but the back not so good, will look 
better in an upper coop, while a bird that is weak in col- 
or of breast will look better in a lower coop. If a bird 
has anything wrong with its feet the fault will stand out 
more plainly when it is in an upper coop which brings the 
feet right before the eyes of a person standing before the 
coop. It is not necessary to go into all the points that 
are made relatively more or less conspicuous by the angle 
at which the bird is seen. The illustrations that have been 
given are typical and cover the most important points. 
To know the quality of an exhibition specimen thoroughly 
one must observe it critically and carefully in many lights, 
from many angles, at various distances, and in comparison 
with every other specimen of its kind and class available. 
Matching Exhibition Pens 
In choosing birds to be shown in the open or single- 
bird classes the exhibitor looks for the best individuals. 
In choosing birds to be shown as a pen it is in most cases 
necessary to select the 
required four females first, 
and then find the male that 
looks best with them. Inex- 
perienced exhibitors general- 
ly fail to appreciate the im- 
portance and value of each 
individual of the four females 
in a pen. In a score-card 
show the male counts for 
half the pen, the score of the 
pen being his score plus the 
average score of the females. 
This method of judging may 
place the awards right where 
only a few pens are compet- 
ing and the differences in 
quality are considerable, but 
is inadequate where there is 
close competition, for it does 
not take into consideration 
how the birds are matched. 
It does not necessarily bring 
the birds together, and for a 
long time it was the practice 
at small shows to allow the 
same birds to compete both 

in single classes and in pens, the exhibitor qualifying for 
the competition in pens by simply entering for that com- 
petition on his entry blank and paying the required fee. 

Then when the birds were all scored singly, his 
highest scoring male and the four highest scoring females 
were considered his pen, and awards based on their scores 
made according to the rule. The birds might never be 
brought together as an exhibition pen at all, or he might 
show in one large pen a male and any number of females 
he wished, each bird being a competitor for any single- 
bird prize for which it was eligible, and also for a place 
in the "exhibition pen." This practice has long been gen- 
erally discontinued, but may obtain still in some small 
score-card shows. It was one of the faults of early prac- 
tice in score-card judging that had much to do with the bad 
repute into which the system fell. The common rule in 
regard to pens is that the birds competing as an exhibition 
pen must be shown together and can compete only as a 
pen. 

While it is desirable to have every bird in the pen of 
as high quality as possible, it is equally important that the 




birds should be well matched, and it is only in flocks of 
the highest quality, and of great uniformity of quality, 
that a hen which might be selected as the best competitor 
for a prize in the hen class could be matched with three 
others so near like her that they would make the best 
pen of females the exhibitor could put together. For a 
pen he must select the four hens of highest quality that 
are nearest alike in every particular. 

For most exhibitors this is the most difficult thing 
in exhibiting, and they have nearly always to make a choice 
between going strong in the singles and going strong in 
the pens — that is, they have to decide whether to put their 
best birds for the single classes in those classes where each 
bird on its individual merits may win a prize, or to make 
their pen as strong as possible in the expectation of win- 
ning the one prize that gives greatest prestige. When an 
experienced breeder gets to a show and has a chance to 
size up the competition against him he may shift a bird 
from a class where he thinks he has no chance or very 
little chance of winning and 
put it where it will improve 
his prospects in another 
class, but in selecting birds at 
home he has to consider on- 
ly the relative merits of his 
own birds. 

As a rule, the female of 
outstanding superior quality 
can be at once set aside for 
single competition, because 
he cannot match her. If there 
are two females of equally 
good outstanding quality, 
both will be reserved for the 
single class. But if he should 
find three better than the 
rest it would become a ques- 
tion whether a fourth female 
not quite matching them, but 
very nearly so, would not 
give him a pen of pretty reli- 
able winners when matched 
with the right male. The 
question of buying a bird to 
fill out such a pen also comes 
up for consideration. It is 
entirely legitimate to do this, and it is also good policy 
if one can find the right bird. The higher the quality of 
those he has for the pen, and the better they match, the 
more difficult it is to go outside and get a bird that match- 
es them, but in ordinary grades of exhibition stock it can 
often be done. 

When the one or two best females are reserved for 
the single classes the question of selection of a peA 
is a question of finding next-best birds that are 
good enough and uniform enough to win as a 
pen. At a local show where an exhibitor may 
wish to show as many birds as he can to fill up classes, 
indifferently matched pens, or fairly well-matched pens of 
mediocre quality (even in the competition they are meet- 
ing), may do; but when the idea is to show only where 
one thinks he has a chance of winning, and in good com- 
petition, one should enter only good pens well matched. 
He should not make his entry for one or more pens until 
he is sure that he can fill the entry. 

When one has a pen of well-matched, or fairly well- 
matched females, the next thing is to find the male that 



OP BROXZE TURKEY 



112 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION - 



looks best with them. Where male and females have the 
same color pattern he must m'atch them as well as possible 
in color, so that the color of the male blends with that 
of his mates. Where they have different color patterns 
there must still be a certain general harmony of color 
tone but the male should, if possible, be a little better 
in color than the females, for he stands out from the 
group conspicuously and his small defects in color be- 
come more noticeable than those of any hen. 

The type of male to use depends on the type charac- 
teristic of the females of the pen. If they are medium to 
fine in type, a large male with a tendency to coarseness 
will make them look small and they will exaggerate his 
coarseness. If they are of good size and rugged looking, 
a male that is too small and fine will make them look 
coarse or they will make him look undersized and insig- 
nificant. 

In selecting the males for show, whether in single 
classes or pens, the bird that is always ready to get in the 
foreground and the limelight is to be preferred — other 
things being anywhere near equal. The experienced ex- 
hibitor likes a male that, as he puts it, "fills the coop" 
when penned by himself, and always is plainly seen in the 
exhibition pen. Most males are more inclined to show 
off when with a pen of females than when cooped sep- 
arately, and where consideration of other points admits, 
it is good policy to put a male that is always forward in 
the single class. 

Until comparatively recent years it was the general 
custom to make up exhibition pens with both old and 
young birds, matching them principally on shade of color. 
As more and more attention has been given to uniform- 
ity of type and shape shows gradually turn to the practice 
of making separate pen classes for young and old birds, 
the same as for single birds, and that is the rule now in 
nearly all the most important shows. 

Uniformity of Exhibits in Single-Bird Classes 

In selecting birds for a string of single entries two 
different general policies are followed by exhibitors. 
Some select for as much uniformity as can be obtained in 
the birds they enter for the single-bird prizes. Others 
select birds with slightly different characteristics. The 
theory of the first plan is that if the birds are very uni- 
form in type and quality the judge who places one high 
in its class will have to rate the others right after it. 



In the other plan the purpose is to increase the chances 
of getting a first prize, or a high prize, on the theory 
that if the judge does not like one style of bird he may 
hit on the other. 

Among the devices favored by some exhibitors to 
help the chances of a favorite bird in single-class com- 
petition, is that of taking inferior birds to the show to coop. 
at one or both sides of them to accentuate their merits 
by the contrast. This may have the expected result 
occasionally, but it is doubtful that it does often 
enough to justify the practice. The judge is quite sure to 
discover the trick after the judging — even if he does not 
suspect it before — and the natural result is to make him 
wary and particularly careful in looking over good birds 
so placed. I do not think it would be of any avail where 
the judges are familiar with good classes shown in good 
condition. Inferior birds do frequently appear in such 
classes at ouf best shows, and are conspicuous for their 
inferiority, but I have never observed that their proximity 
was of any advantage to better birds cooped beside them. 

A novel variation of this trick was observed in one 
of the largest classes at a leading show in the season of 
1920-21. An exhibitor showed a fine string of birds, con- 
taining some easily recognizable as coming from another 
breeder. Right beside the best cock, hen, cockerel and 
pullet entered by this exhibitor, were cooped a cock, hen 
and cockerel of inferior quality and in poor condition, en- 
tered "not for competition" by the breeder who sold the 
other birds for his string. In the pullet class circumstances 
in the form of an exhibitor whose entry of a single pullet 
slipped in between the conspirator's numbers spoiled the 
arrangement, and as the breeder could not help out his 
customer by appearing a fourth time as exhibitor of a poor 
bird "not for competition," he put in a very fine pullet in 
the pink of condition. 

Except in cases, as cited, where one enters birds to 
help fill up a show, it is good policy to limit the number 
entered at any show to the birds one feels reasonably sure 
have some chance of being placed. This is especially 
true as to comparison shows where one has nothing 
at all to show for unplaced specimens, no matter how 
good. There is no advantage to an exhibitor in showing 
b'rds that do not win. It is not big entries that count, 
but the winnings made. Most novices enter too many 
birds and spend too little time fitting and training them. 




Ee at t he London Crystal Pi 
But a pen with sucb an as; 



of types ought no 



Madison Square Garden, winner of a first at 
to win in any show 



CHAPTER IX 
Special Fitting of Birds for Exhibition 

Feeding to Force Flesh and Feather Growth — Training and Posing Birds — Fitting and Faking Combs, Ear Lobes, 

Crests, Legs and Feet — Washing and Bleaching White Birds — Feather Bending, Fluffing and Splicing 

— Removing Plumage Color Faults by Dyeing, Staining and Trimming Feathers 



IN this chapter are presented all the processes, legiti- 
mate and illegitimate, used in fitting or faking poultry 
for exhibition that the author has been able to get to- 
gether. It is not certified that the list is complete, but 
it is not seriously lacking at any point. The general 
questions of ethics involved were discussed in Chapter 
III and no further reference to that phase of the matter 
is necessary here, except to say that the purpose of the 
book is not education of unscrupulous exhibitors in il- 
legitimate practices, but to help scrupulous exhibitors to 
discover unfair practices, and to take such measures as 



a very few ounces of additional weight on a bird may 
turn a decision in its favor, and when this decision may 
be of great moment to the owner. In such cases it is good 
policy for him to do whatever is necessary to help the 
bird make all the weight it needs. 

There are also cases where the unexpectedly slow 
development of plumage will, it appears, leave 
a bird something short of the full growth of feather 
which brings its characteristics out to best advantage. 
In these cases a little extra feed may help greatly. There 
are cases again where a bird has to be kept up and handled 




VETERAN POULTRY FANCIERS AT THE BOSTON SHOW 1914 
For many years one of the pleasant features of the Boston Show has been the "Veteran Fanciers' Banquet" given by the man- 
agement to those in attendance who are past sixty years of age and have been breeding poultry for twenty years or more. The 
latter provisiun is superfluous, for a man past three-score still breeding poultry or attending shows is practically without ex- 
ception one who began very early in life. Most of the veterans appearing here have over 40 years' experience as exhibitors, and 
some nearly sixty. The author selected this particular group for reproduction here because of the number in it whose separate 
photographs could not be obtained for use in this book. 

Standing from left to right — Frank P. Johnson. Indianapolis. Ind., 64 years (Light Brahmas) : C. W. Richardson, Apponaug, 
R. I.; P. H. Freeman, Fitchburg, Mass., 64 years (Silver and GoloVn Laced Wyandottes); W. B. Atherton. Secretary Boston 
Poultry Association; John Lowell, President Boston Poultry Association (Hamburgs); Geo. F. Eastman. Northampton, Mass., 66 
years;' John D. Jodrev. Danvers. Mass., 70 years (Silver Laced Wyandottes); Frank C. Nutter, So. Portland. Me., 61 years (Light 
Brahmas); Frank L. Fish, Brookline, Mass., 66 years; Dr. S. Lott. Bellona, N. Y., 71 years (Dark Brahmas). Seated, from left 
to right — W H Sylvester, Brockton, Mass., 66 years; H. B. May, Boston, 82 years (originator of the Essex Strain Barred Rocks); 
Chas. L. Seelev, Afton. N. Y., 75 years (White Crested Black Polish) ; I. K. Felch, Natick, Mass., 80 years (Light Brahmas) ; 
Henry F. Felch, Natick, 75 years (Light Brahmas); Frank B. Breed, Clinton, Mass.: C. B. Travis. Brighton, Mass., 71 years 
(White Leghorns). Names of breeds are given in parenthesis only in the cases of men long prominently identified with a particular 
breed. Mr. Freeman, Mr. Atherton. Mr. Lowell, Mr. Nutter and Dr. Lott were exhibitors at Boston in 1921. Mr. Nutter also ex- 
hibited at the Garden. Mr.. Johnson was an exhibitor at Chicago, December, 1920. 



are practical to secure fair competition. As far as pos- 
sible methods of detecting forms of faking are given. 
Feeding for Rapid Increase in Weight and Growth of 
Plumage 
As far as possible forced feeding is to be avoided in 
the preparation of poultry for exhibition. If only the best 
good of the bird could be considered we might say that 
there should be no forced feeding, but each bird in com- 
petition should stand or fall on what can be made of it 
by feeding ordinary good rations as used for breeding and 
growing stock. There are many times, however, when 



a rather long period before a show and as a result goes off 
its feed and begins to lose condition and weight. A few 
days of liberty and light feeding may bring it back to 
health and with a perfectly good appetite but a little 
low in flesh. It needs a little extra feeding before the 
show, and if it is not able to stand that it certainly is not 
in fit condition to show. 

In regard to the ability of birds being conditioned 
for show' to stand heavy feeding, it should be said that the 
fancier — even more than those who engage in the special 
fattening of poultry for market — needs to be expert 



114 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



in distinguishing between birds that can stand forced 
feeding and those that cannot. It is worse than useless 
to try to force a bird to a diet that evidently does not 
agree with it. If it does not respond to efforts to increase 
its weight or to hasten its development the owner should 
either take his chances with it in the best condition he can 
get with ordinary feeding methods, or leave it at home. 
In, general, the safest way to go about forced feeding 
is by the addition of a little more concentrated and pala- 
table feed to the regular ration. Where there is no 




TEACHING A BIRD TO POSE 

danger of yellow corn having undesirable effects on the 
color of the plumage, the best way, by all odds, is to in- 
crease the corn and corn meal in a ration, taking care that 
these are of good quality — sweet and bright and from 
good, ripe, hard corn. When it is not deemed advisable to 
use corn freely, or when good corn cannot be obtained, 
the same results can be obtained by giving good wheat 
under conditions that permit the fowls to get a full meal 
easily and quickly, and either feeding moist mash twice 
a day or giving one feed of moist mash and one of wheat, 
heavy oats, or barley soaked in water until well swelled, 
or slightly sprouted. 

If more rapid gain than this diet will make is desired 
a little suet or sugar may be given in the mash. Allow 
suet or tallow at the rate of a piece about the size of an 
English walnut to every four birds every other day or, 
if fed daily, at about half that rate. In feeding sugar, 
a tablespoonful may be given each bird daily. It will put 
on fat very rapidly, but the fat gained with sugar tends 
to disappear as rapidly when the sugar is' withdrawn. A 
little molasses in the mash will answer the same purpose, 
but it should be good molasses with mash of good ground 
feedstuffs. Cheap molasses stock feeds, in which molasses 
is mixed with by-products consisting largely of fibrous 
stuff stock would not eat alone, will not do. 

Fats add gloss and luster to plumage, and may be 
used as freely as the bird will take them and retain good 
appetite, for all dark-colored and buff birds, but in feed- 
ing them to white birds caution must be used, especially 
with birds that have the color of the plumage much af- 
fected by fat. One of the time-honored methods of feeding 
to give luster to the plumage, introduced from England, 
was to mix the mash with linseed or flaxseed tea instead 
of water. A more practical and less troublesome method 
is to give an ordinary good dry mash — accessible to the 



fowls at all times with five per cent of good beef scrap, and 
five per cent of linseed meal. 

For feather growth and increase of weight larger 
proportions of beef scrap might be used, but there is al- 
ways in that case the danger that the amount of meat giv- 
en will cause the comb and wattles to grow more than 
is desired. Hence, exhibitors generally try to get all 
the growth they can with a moderate use of animal feed. 
Milk, both whole and skimmed, is given in the mash, or 
dry bread is soaked in milk. Fowls that are to be washed 
may also be given milk to drink, but for fowls that are 
to be shown without a thorough washing it is not advisable 
to use milk in a form that will soil the plumage. 

Green and succulent feeds should be used very lib- 
erally, the fowls having all they want of such things as 
cabbage, mangels, or any succulent feed available. A 
suitable supply of such things enables the bird's system to 
use rich feeds given it to increase weight and feather 
growth without injury to the digestive organs. 

For birds that seem to be a little indisposed and to 
lack vitality the moderate use of tonics is often bene- 
ficial, but it is a mistake to use these continuously ex- 
cept in such small amounts that the purpose they really 
serve is that of seasoning in the feed. 

Nearly all of the tonics and tonic feeds well known 
to poultrymen are useful general tonics. Among tonics 
of common formulas that have long been used by ex- 
hibitors, the following may be mentioned: 

Ginger 4 drams 

Gentian root 4 drams 

Sulphate of iron 2 drams 

Hyposulphite of sodium 1 dram 

Salycilate of sodium 1 dram 

Pulverize and mix thoroughly. Dose — three or four 
grains a day for a medium-sized fowl. 

Fenugreek 1 ounce 

Mandrake 1 ounce 

Ginger 1 ounce 

Gentian root _ 1 ounce 

Bicarbonate of soda 4 ounces 

Dose — a teaspoonful to each quart of mash. 

Licorice 2 ounces 

Aniseed 4 ounce 

Ginger 2 ounces 

Cayenne pepper 1 ounce 

Pimento 2 ounces 

Sulphate of iron 1 ounce 

This is used as a seasoning sprinkled in mash in such 
amounts as appear to be appetizing to the birds. 

As a special tonic for backward plumage, Wright 
recommends 6 to 10 grains of citrate of potash daily; 
but adds that in many cases it will be found that making 
sure that the bird is absolutely free from lice has just as 
beneficial effects. 

Training and Posing 
Birds that have been handled right in looking them 
over at various times before the final fitting period have 
usually acquired some confidence in human beings, and 
even though it may have been necessary to 
hurt them a little sometimes (as in plucking 
feathers), that does not seem to impress them as much 
as the fact that the handling generally does them n© 
harm and that the attentions they receive add something to 
the interest and comfort of life. All this earlier handling 
however, is usually wholly incidental to examination. 
Now handling should be systematically directed to mak- 
ing the bird perfectly docile and teaching it to pose 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



115 



in the attitudes which will show it to best advantage, and 
special attention must be given to good birds that are 
inclined to be a little shy and wild. One should make 
it a point to visit the coops several times a day — the 
oftener the better for this purpose — and when he is in 
the vicinity of the coops, or has occasion to pass where the 
birds will see him, to stop if just for a second before 
each and attract its attention Whenever one has time to 
do a little more than this he should make it a point to 
do something with or for the birds, distributing his at- 
tentions as seems most advantageous in bringing all to the 
point where they are easily handled. If he has to spend 
so much time on one occasion with one backward bird 
that he has little left for others, he should make it a point 
not to let that specimen monopolize his attention again un- 
til he has been all around to those requiring a like amount. 

Some instructions for posing birds are rather more in- 
sistent upon certain formulas of movement in handling 
them than is necessary, and instructions by equally ex- 
pert handlers sometimes appear contradictory. Thus one 
says: "Never begin by putting your hand on a bird's 
back. Always put it under, rather than over, them until 
they are perfectly gentle." Another will say: "Stroke 
the bird gently from head to the tail, bearing down a 
little on the tail and, closing the fingers on it, continue 
the movement to the end.'' 

To some extent instructions of this kind are defective 
and limited. The mode of approach depends upon the at- 
titude of the bird (upon how that varies from the desired 
typical attitude), and also much upon the person undertak- 
ing to handle the bird. In most cases the hand will go 
under the bird first because the tendency of most birds 
that come up to the hand from the start is to lower the 
body and head too much. The bird's natural impulse is 
to strike at a hand approaching it, or to spring forward 
or upward past the person before it. In either case, it 
relaxes the body at the hips and hocks in readiness for a 
spring. The object of the handler is to get the bird to 
take a graceful upright pose with its attention still fixed 
on him. To do this he cautiously approaches a hand to 
its throat and with the tips of the fingers gently tickles 
the throat between the wattles. Birds like this and will 
generally stand contentedly while it is done. 

While tickling the throat the head is gently 
raised as far as desired. The bird may bring 
the body also up to a nice pose. If it does not, 
the handler gradually shifts the hand down until he has it 
under the body and with a little upward pressure the 
bird may stand in the position desired. It may 
go too high, in which case stroking the back 
will bring it down. It may turn away and try to 
go to the rear of the coop. If it does it must 
be brought back to the front center of the coop and with 
slight touches or pressure from the proper direction grad- 
ually worked into just the position desired. Having start- 
ed to make a bird take a particular pose, one should work 
with it as long as necessary .to get it into a position that 
fairly approximates what is wanted. To stop at any 
halfway stage is to fail entirely to give the bird an idea of 
what is required of it. Naturally it thinks that poor pose 
is what is wanted. 

The best handlers generally talk to a bird while pos- 
ing it, and while it does not appear that birds have any 
actual comprehension of what is said to them, the sound 
of the voice soothing or reassuring them helps the process, 
and fanciers are wont to say that when a bird will "talk 
back" they can soon do whatever they wish with it. 



When a bird backs away from the hand and draws it- 
self up, one must get a hand behind or over it to bring it 
in position to begin tickling the throat and stroking it. A 
shy bird may have to be held in the front of the coop with 
one hand while the other caresses it. When a male 
is vicious, and strikes hard with his beak at a hand intro- 
duced into his coop, the hand must be kept above him and 
close to his head, and his efforts to pick it met by slight 
boxes on the side of the head until he concludes that it is 
no use. Always in approaching such a bird one should 
make it a point not to let him get a hold but always 
evade or block him. It is not simply a question of pre- 
venting ugly cuts on the hand, but of breaking a bird of 
the vice. A bird that has it and carries it into the show- 
room will get the very least consideration that the judge 
can give him, and a judge has wide latitude in the matter 
of posing birds to bring out what is in them. 

After a bird has been trained a little in the coop, it 
should be taken out and the same process gone through 




••SADDLE" t'SED TO HOLD BIRDS FOR CLOSE EX- 
AMINATION AND PITTING 

A strap holds the bird on the saddle, the legs being made fast 
in the clamps at either side of the standard which can be ad- 
justed any height required 

with the bird on a table, barrel or stand, where the op- 
portunities to escape a handler are better. Here the 
handler must be more alert for the oftener a bird gets 
away from him the more trouble there will always be 
in handling it. He must, while working the bird into the 
desired poses, anticipate any move it may make to escape, 
blocking it if possible and, if the bird gets away recovering 
it with as little fuss and excitement as possible, continue 
posing it until it is in the position he wants. When the 
bird is in that position he should be kept in it as long as 
he will hold the pose, and when he changes it should be 
coaxed into it again, repeating this several times. 

When it has learned to hold a pose for some seconds 
the handler should begin to back away a few steps as 
soon as the bird is in pose, keeping his eye on it and also 
pointing toward it with a finger or a hand to hold its at- 



116 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



tention. At first one should not go so far back that he 
cannot intercept a movement of the bird to leave the 
stand, but by degrees he can increase the distance until 
in many cases it will stay on the stand for minutes with 
the handler at such a distance that he could not possibly 
prevent it from leaving if it tried to do so. 

After a bird has been got into the desired pose once, 
if it Appears tired the training should be discontinued for 
the time. If it shows signs of being tired before the pose 
has been made it should be allowed to rest a little, but 
the aim should always be to have it in some way engaged 
with the handler until it has done what he wants it to 
do. He may take it from the stand and hold it, or he may 
let it walk about the floor always within his reach, or he 
may give it some tidbit to cheer it up, but he should have 
it under control until the lesson is ended. 

There is a great difference in the aptitude of birds 
in learning to pose. Some can be made to take any desired 
pose in a few minutes, and after having been posed in a 
position several times will take it almost at a touch. 
Some it will take a half-hour, or e\»en more, to get to ■ 
pose right. The average time required for a first pose 
is from ten to fifteen minutes. Most birds can, with 
patience, be taught to pose in one position, which should 
be the position in which they best show the breed type 
and show any faults of carriage they may have least. 
It is not wise to try to teach a bird more than one pose. 
Some birds always pose well, and with these the idea is to 
have them learn to take the pose that shows them in profile 
to the best advantage whenever they are under direct 
inspection — to have them take it when anyone stops be- 
fore the coop to look at them. Birds that habitually take 
poor poses are those that are not balanced right, or are 
lacking in vitality, and it really requires an effort on 
their part to hold a good pose, and they will do it only 
when touched up. It is doubtful whether such birds 
could be taught more than one pose, but there is really 
no object in trying it. If they will pose well in one best 
position for the judge, that will get them by when awards 
are being placed, though they will not attract the attention 
of observers as the natural posers do. 



In posing to show breed type one must always have 
in mind the qualification mentioned in the preceding 
paragraph as to modifications of this pose to conceal any 
faults of shape that may be concealed by this means, and 
must also avoid exaggerations of breed type. It should be 
observed that Standard models of the breeds accentuate 
features of shape fully as much as is desirable and that 
to go noticeably beyond these in any respect is to overdo 
the matter. 

If a bird will not move as desired when a part is 
touched or pressure is applied to it, the handler should 
take hold of it and gently force it into the position desired. 
Thus a bird may persist in holding its feet or one of them 
in a position in which it cannot pose right. The foot must 
be moved to the required position as often as necessary, 
until the bird will keep it there and relax so that it bal- 
ances in the attitude desired. ' The handler must on no 
account lose his temper when a bird is stubborn, and be- 
gin to handle it roughly. No progress whatever can be 
made along that line, but much previous progress may be 
undone. After a bird has learned to pose under direction 
by the hand it should be taught to follow direction by 
a stick. The transition is easy and natural if in handling 
the bird one has occasionally kept a finger pointed toward 
it, or perhaps held a lead pencil in the hand. Judges do 
not all use judging sticks, but the bird should be taught 
to know what the stick is for and to follow its directions 
the same as those of a hand. Then there will be no trouble 
with its shying away from a judge with a stick in his 
hand, or dodging or fighting the stick when touched 
with it. 

Much is said of the advantage of gaining the confi- 
dence of birds in training by feeding from the hand dur- 
ing or after handling. The objection to doing much of 
that is that the bird comes to associate the hand with feed 
rather than with command to show itself off, and the re- 
sult is often a persistent disposition to face the handler 
or observer and to come close to see what is in his hand, 
instead of standing with the profile toward him, or in a 
quartering position, and coming to a nice pose in that 
attitude. With patience most birds can be made gentle and 




No. 



FORMING THE HABIT OF CORRECT CARRIAGE OF BODY 

represented by the dotted line, the opening being so placed that 



-coop with opening in the front, represented by the dotted line, the opening being so placed that it encourages ideal carriage. 
•i. — shows where the opening should be placed for a bird inclined to carry the front of body too high. Placing the opening and the feed and 
water cups low down, leads the bird to lower the front part of the body and get the habit of carrying it lower. No. 3 — shows coop arranged 
for a bird that carries the front of the body too low. 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



117 



as submissive as is necessary when handling. It is not 
desirable that birds should appear too submissive, for 
that gives the impression of being cowed. Nor is it 
desirable that the bird should be too much of a pet — in- 
clined to be affectionate and familiar with the person 
handling it, instead of standing off and displaying its 
attractions. 

There are some cases in which no amount of coax- 
ing or persuasion has any effect, but the bird absolutely 
refuses to follow any direction and is either ready to 
dash away unless forcibly held or takes a rigid and con- 
strained position /! yi 
from which it 
will not relax in 
the least. I have 
seen it stated 
that unruly birds 
are effectually 
tamed by the 
process of wash- 
ing. I cannot 
vouch for the 
remedy as effec- 
tive for all cas- 
es, but I have no 
doubt that in 
many instances it 
w o u Id — better 
than any other 
method — reduce 
the bird to a 
state of submis- 
siveness. 

Fitting, Fixing 

and Faking 

Head Points 

A twist in a 
comb is due to 
local unsymmet- 
rical growth of 
the comb. Slight lopping is due either to debility in the 
bird, or to the comb being too thin for its height. Lopping 
and twisting may occur together. A comb that shows any 
of these faults can rarely be made permanently free from 
them, but they can often be fully remedied temporarily, 
and permanently very much reduced. 

Slight twisting in the outer sections of a single comb 
— over the beak, in the points or in the blade — and twisted 
spikes in rose combs, or spikes that do not point as they 
should, can be put in the desired position by massaging with 
the fingers and bending twisted parts 
in an opposite direction. Whatever im- 
provement in appearance can be 




Made 



COMB GUARD 
of soft copper or brass wire. At 
A a silk twist is passed with a needle 
through the nostril and the guard is tied 
in position. The section marked B is wound 
with waxed string to prevent its marking 
the head. The hook C is to keep the point 
of the guard from pressing into the comb. 
D is the front view of a guard for a comb 
that leans to the left (opposite way to 
which ihe guard leans). 



marie may help the bird to a better place in the awards. 
One who has had no experience should practice first on 
some bird with faults of this kind which he does not 
intend to exhibit and see just how much he can accomplish, 
and how long a comb that is fixed in this way will keep 
the shape given it. Where the tendency to twist is at 
all pronounced it will usually return in a few days and it 
may do so in a few hours. Where it is slight, some ex- 
hibitors are satisfied to manipulate the comb at the latest 
possible moment before the class in which the bird com- 
petes is judged. Massaging commenced early and repeated 
too often may after a time increase the trouble. 

Where a comb lops or tends to lop from general weak- 
ness of structure it may be straightened for quite a long 
period, and perhaps permanently, by placing on it sup- 
ports which hold it in a perfectly straight position. The 
appliance most used for this purpose is a wire support 
made in the manner shown in the accompanying illus- 
tration. Cardboard supports are sometimes used, but they 
are rather cumbersome, are affected by moisture, and un- 
less very carefully adjusted may make the comb sore. 

When a comb lops slightly from general debility of 
the bird it may fully recover correct position as the bird 
regains good condition, but sometimes — especially in the 
case of a young bird whose comb is growing at the time 
— the comb will not recover its natural position because 
it has grown into the wrong position. ' If there is any 
danger of this, supports should be applied to keep the 
comb straight until the bird recovers its vitality. 

Most of the trouble with crooked combs is in the 
com'bs of males of the large-combed breeds. The females 
of these breeds have corresponding faults but they do not 
show to the same extent because the lopped comb is re- 
quired in the female. The judge will usually find them 
and take account of them. The most marked results from 
massaging the combs of females are obtained in those 
cases where the comb is a little too small or too stiff 
to lop well, or where a comb that should fall smoothly 
to one side tends to loop. In such cases there is little 
danger of overdoing the massaging, and I have known 
daily treatments for several weeks to put a poor comb per- 
manently in good form. Whether it is worth the effort 
depends altogether on the importance to the exhibitor of 
showing that particular bird. It should be said that while 
most exhibitors do more or less massaging of combs and 
wattles, all seek as far as possible to avoid the necessity 
for it, and, as a rule, it is only the birds that are remark- 
ably good in other respects that are considered worth 
treating for this class of comb faults. 

As a means to 
prevent excessive 




Or- ^c//-/ijS . 

TO TAKE A TWIST OUT OF A COMB 





TO BRING OUT AN INGROWN SPIKE 



118 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



growth of comb and increase of dangers of lopping and 
twisting, Wright mentions hazeline tincture or hazeline 
cream applied nightly to the comb while growing. The as- 
tringent property in these checks the circulation of blood in 
the comb and so retards growth. All these extraneous meas- 
ures, however, are deficient in that a few hours' exposure to 
high temperature may offset the care of weeks, and so 
American breeders generally try to keep the normal comb 
so moderate in size that it will grow smoothly, and that the 
usuaP increases in its size made by exposure to high 
temperatures will not make it objectionably large. 

Surgical Operations on Combs — The simplest of these 
is the removal of side sprigs. The earlier these are re- 
moved the better — provided a clean job is made of it; but 
if the growth is merely pruned, of course it will increase 
in size making necessary a second operation. A side sprig 
may be removed with a knife or a pair of scissors, or 
bitten off with the teeth or pinched off between the thumb 
and finger nails. Scissors seem to be commonly pre- 
ferred, and slightly curved manicure scissors are best, 
for by placing a finger on the opposite side of the comb 
and pressing the scissors against it before cutting, the 
wound made is a little below the surface and the skin tends 
to close over it and to heal with a fainter scar. The opera- 
tion should be performed several weeks before the bird is 
to be shown to insure that the least possible trace of it will 
remain. Where the sprig is quite large and the blood flows 
too freely powdered alum or tannin is used to stop the 
flow. 

In the days when good five-point combs were rarer 
than they are now a well-known method of making a 
comb with too many points grow the desired number was 
to prick or pinch certain of the superfluous points, just 
as the comb was beginning to grow, so that their growth 
would be checked and those beside them would grow over 
them, making them fully ingrown points. It is said that 
combs so treated were far less liable than others to twist. 
The operation is on precisely the same basis as the remov- 
al of side sprigs, except that to succeed it must be per- 
formed at a very early stage of the growth of the comb. 

A much more difficult, and also probably a much 
more common operation, is the "lifting" of the ingrown 
spike of a rose comb. This operation consists in cutting 
the comb around the base of the spike in such a manner 
that the spike can be pressed out and the adjacent parts 
brought together to hold it in the new position when 
they are healed. It is hardly possible for an operation 
like this to be performed without leaving rather conspicu- 
ous scars, but if the bird has at the rear of the comb 
a protuberance that will pass for a spike it is saved from 
disqualification, and as the corrugations on rose combs are 
often either naturally quite irregular and smooth skinned, 
or the skin has been made smooth by injury, scars are 
not so conspicuous as on a single comb of fine texture. 

Accounts from various sources mention instances of 
much more important operations on rose combs. Wright 
gives it as a matter of his own personal knowledge that 
in a certain case where a Hamburg male had too large 
a comb a wedge-shaped piece was cut out of the center 
the entire length of the comb and the sides drawn together, 
making — when healed — a much narrower and very good- 
shaped comb. The same writer mentions as a matter of 
hearsay, a case where the good comb of a poor Hamburg 
was successfully transplanted to the head of a good bird 
which had a poor comb. In this case it was said that 
both combs were cut off clean, close to the head, and 
the transposed comb immediately fastened so that it would 



remain until healed. This case is cited as one regarded 
as extraordinarily brutal, but it must be said that apart 
from the additional pain and discomfort caused a bird by 
the burden of the grafted comb on its head until union 
of the parts took place, the brutality does not exceed that 
of dubbing the combs of Minorcas having abnormally 
large com'bs. 

Judges have sometimes found needles in the combs 
of birds, either placed there to hold a point or spike in 
position or to hold parts together while healing after a 
major manipulation of them. Most of these cases are 
reported from England — probably because the predilection 
for large combs there makes more occasions of tempta- 
tion, and perhaps also because as the birds are handled 
less by the judge the chances of escaping detection are 
better. 

To heighten the color of the comb various washes 
and lotions are used and recommended. Before giving 
them I will say that one of our most successful exhibitors 
declares that clean water applied with a smiall brush ans- 
wers the purpose as well as anything used, and has the ad- 
vantage of giving more lasting effects, there being no re- 
action in its use as where a stimulant is applied. This 
washing may be done either before a bird goes to the 
show or in the showroom. 

Sweet oil and .alcohol, equal parts. Apply with a 
small bit of sponge or soft cloth. 

Two parts of alcohol and one part of glycerine, with 
three drops oil of sassafras to each teaspoonful of mix- 
ture. Apply as above. Care must be taken not to get 
this in the bird's eyes as it is extremely pungent. 

Vinegar, or vinegar and water. This is said to be 
objectionable for use on the combs of birds that have been 
washed, as it causes their com'bs to blister. 

Vaseline alone is sometimes used on combs and 
wattles, both to improve the color, and to make them 
more resistant to frost. For the latter purpose it is of- 
ten smeared on quite thickly at the close of the show when 
the birds may have to go from a warm showroom into 
extreme cold. Put on at any other time it must be wiped 
quite dry for otherwise it catches the dust, and the bird 
is likely to smear its plumage with the grease. 

Olive oil, sweet oil, coconut oil and turmeric, are 
all used to brighten combs. Any mixture used for the 
shanks will, as a rule, be as satisfactory for the comb 
and wattles. 

Treatment of Ear Lobes and Faces 

Permanent white in red ear lobes and faces is some- 
times concealed by painting it over with oil or water col- 
or or with a red cosmetic. The success of the deception 
depends entirely upon the fault being made so inconspic- 
uous, and the application to conceal it being also so in- 
conspicuous, that the judge does not observe anything 
peculiar about the lobes. Vermillion reds and permangan- 
ate of potassium are the ingredients most commonly used. 
India ink and Venetian red are also employed. Neither 
will completely cover a large patch of white. A small 
spot may be covered well but on close inspection will 
usually look enough different from the rest of the lobe to 
make it quite apparent that the exhibitor has resorted 
to coloring. Where coloring is present it will come off 
if the lobe is wiped with a white cloth moistened with 
water alcohol or ammonia, as may be necessary to remove 
what has been used, or if dried thoroughly hard a 
careful examination will show it. In many cases close in- 
spection shows the white spot through the coloring matter. 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



119 



Small spots of white are sometimes cut out of red 
lobes, or burned out with caustic. If the job is well and 
neatly done the remaining scar appears to be due to in- 
jury. A crude job may still have that appearance, but 
leaves very strong suspicion in the mind of the judge. 

The process is thus described by Hubbard: "Take 
a stick of caustic and moisten the end. Then go over the 
whole surface of the ear lobe that shows white. Do this 
twice a day for three or four days, and it will cause a 
blister which will form a scab. When the scab comes off 
the white comes with it. When it heals you have a red 
ear lobe. Never pull the scab off or touch it in any way. 
If you do you will spoil the whole job." It should be 
added that here again the success of the job is a matter 
of getting the bird past the judge without special at- 
tention being attracted to the ear lobe. As soon as one 
familiar with the natural appearance of a lobe having nor- 
mal, perfect skin looks at one that has been treated this way 
he knows that something has been done to it, and has a 
pretty good idea what has been done. 

The treatment of white ear lobes to secure a perfectly 
white surface includes both those entirely free from red 
and those having more or less red. Whitening of white 
lobes that have no red faults may be either a matter of 
removing a weather-stained and sunburned outer skin, 
so that the lobe has a new and perfectly white skin for 
the show, or it may be done by the application of some 
white preparation. The former method is commonly 
preferred as being more defensible. It is. in fact, a 
practice of the same character as the removal of freckles 
or tan from the human skin. It does not change the natur- 
al quality of the white skin of the lobe but removes a 
worn skin that a fresh one may grow. 

Oxide of zinc ointment, and toilet preparation of 
"peroxide cream" are the ingredients commonly used 
for this purpose. The ointment or cream is rubbed light- 
ly over the lobes once a day, beginning about three weeks 
before the show. It causes the outer cuticle to peel and 
the new skin comes perfectly white. The birds should not 
be exposed to the sun and weather during the process or 
the new skin will be more or less colored. The process 
should also be gradual — with mild applications of the 
preparation used — as a too rapid removal of the old skin 
makes the new skin rough and may make the ear lobe 
sore and bring red into it. The novice in the use of the 
process should not get his first practice in it with good 
birds just before they are to be shown; but should prac- 
tice on a few culls in advance of the show season. 

The treatment for whitening ear lobes appears to have 
been originated and brought to its highest perfection 
by English breeders of Black Spanish fowls more than 
half a century ago. It seems to have had its beginning 
in applications of dilute sulphurous acid to cure eruptions 
on the white face. To prevent injury to the sound skin 
and temper the action of the acid preparation on sores, 
the face after being as carefully dried as possible was 
powdered or dusted with violet powder or with oxide 
of zinc in powder form. The oxide of zinc was pre- 
ferred because where it lodged in the slight damp folds 
or creases of the face it did not crust as the violet powder 
was apt to do, and because it was found that continued ap- 
plications of it to the white face increased its smoothness 
a'nd whiteness. The application of powdered oxide of 
zinc to ear lobes today follows this method, and with the 
difference that whereas the powder was first used to 
thoroughly dry the face, in the modern process, the ear 



lobes are first moistened and then partly dried that the 
powder may adhere when applied. 

The misuse of sulphurous acid, using it too strong 
or without proper after-treatment, is probably responsible 
for the idea that persists to some extent that severe ap- 
plications of acids are sometimes made to whiten lobes. 
One writer referring to "acid treatments" used observes 
that it is cruelty to animals to use them, and that they 
always leave a scar. It should be entirely plain to anyone 
that a treatment that leaves a scar is of no use whatever 
for white lobes. For eruptions on the lobes use any of 
the mild antiseptic preparations common for household 
use, and after partly drying with a soft cloth, powder 
with one of the preparations mentioned, or with boracic, 
talcum or other powders used for toilet purposes. 

An "enamel red" in white lobes cannot be removed. 
It is sometimes concealed when at the edges and cover- 
ing only a little surface by manipulation of the lobe, 
stretching it gently and rolling the red edge under. Cases 
have been known where a considerable area of red was 
thus turned under and the lobe sewed from the underside 
to prevent it going back. The method is comparatively 
easy to discover, for the lobe is drawn into an unnatural 
position and inspection of it at once reveals the threads. 

The stretching and massaging process is also some- 
times used to improve the form or increase the size of a 
white lobe not in need of treatment for any color fault. 
Treatment of Beaks and Bills 

A little dark color on a yellow or flesh-colored beak 
or bill may be removed by scraping with a knife, or by the 
use of a nail tile, or of fine sandpaper. Before undertaking 
the removal of such color it is well to be sure that it is on- 
ly on the surface. If it extends into the substance of the 
beak it cannot be removed in this way — or any other. If it 
is entirely under the surface, scraping there will only in- 
crease its appearance to the eye. 

In England the flesh-colored bill of the Aylesbury 
Duck is one of the most prized exhibition points, and 
smoothness of the bill and delicacy of tint are secured by 
keeping the birds under cover where the sun will not burn 
the bills, by giving clean water with an abundance of 
sharp, white gravel to polish the bill as the birds move 
their bills through it, and sometimes when these meas- 
ures seem insufficient and the bill remains coarse and 
rough it is scraped with a sharp knife all that it will stand 
without bleeding, then rubbed smoother with fine sand- 
paper, and the bird kept in a rather dark place for 
several weeks until a new bill is grown. According to 
pretty well authenticated reports, the keen competition for 
perfection in this prized feature occasionally leads an ex- 
hibitor to peel the bill that an absolutely new one may 
grow. 

Treatment of Shanks and Feet 

If the shanks of a bird are not perfectly smooth and 
healthy looking, treatment to remedy them should begin 
as soon as the bird is selected for showing. The simple 
cleaning and polishing of the legs may be deferred until 
just before shipping to the show'. In fact, when a breeder 
accompanies his birds he often finds it more convenient 
to put such finishing touches on there. The most common 
troubles needing prompt attention are unmolted scales 
and scaly leg. The two are often associated. The failure 
of the scales, or a part of them, to drop off 
is a condition similar to that of the failure of 
feathers on a section of the body to molt prop- 
erly. The scales if loose can be removed by 
pressing with the thumb nail at one side, as shown in the 



120 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



accompanying illustration. The whole shank and the toes 
should be systematically gone over to free them of all 
loose scales. If the scales, though rough, will not come 
out easily, the force necessary for their removal should 
not be used for that would cause bleeding, and some- 
times discoloration as a result of blood lodging under the 
scales where it cannot be reached in cleaning. The treat- 
ment .used for these cases should be to apply freely oil 
or paste as used for cleaning and polishing healthy shanks 
and feet daily, rubbing it off as much as necessary to 
prevent soiling of the plumage. A paste made of sweet 
oil and powdered pumice is very good for this purpose. 
The oil is absorbed by the scales and skin, and when 
the parts are rubbed the pumice scours and smooths the 
rough scales. Continued applications of any oily mix- 
ture will frequently loosen the old scales so that they 
are easily removed. 

This same treatment will cure mild cases of scaly 
leg, but where the disease is bad it is necessary to use 
more penetrating oils. The preparation most commonly 
used is a mixture of kerosene and linseed oil in about 
equal parts for ordinary cases, and with more kerosene 
for severe and less for mild cases. The method of ap- 
plication is first to rub off as much of the dead matter 
as can be removed with a stiff brush (an old nail brush), 
then dip the legs to the hocks in oil, hold them above it 
for as long as necessary to let what will run off drip, and 
either wipe dry or put the bird on clean straw or shav- 
ings and let the leg absorb the oil. This should be 
repeated daily until the leg is clean and smooth. The 
more kerosene is used, the sooner the dead matter will 
all be removed, and it is possible to get rid of all the scale 
on very bad legs in a week or little more. Such rapid 
process however, leaves the skin bare, raw and sore, and 
it will not look as clean after the scales grow out on it as 
if the cure is more gradual. 

Other preparations used for scaly leg are: 

Vaseline, 5 parts; oil of caraway seed, 1 part. 

Vaseline and zinc ointment, equal parts. 

For severe cases: One ounce of sulphur, half an 
ounce of oxide of zinc, one dram, of coal tar, two ounces 
of whale-oil soap. Mix together well and apply daily. 

For Feather-Legged Birds — The use of greasy prep- 
arations for feather-legged birds is not practical, and many 



prefer not to use them on clean-legged birds to the ex- 
tent necessary in treating scaly leg with them. An emul- 
sion which can be washed from the feathers after appli- 
cations are made to reach the scale on the leg and among 
the quills of the foot feathering can be made in the pro- 
portions of half a pound of soft soap and half a pint of 
kerosene to a pint of water. This may be applied with a 
brush, or it may be further diluted with water and the 
legs dipped in it and the feathers cleaned afterwards with 
water and a stiff brush. It is always desirable to have 
necessary treatment for scaly leg in feather-legged fowls 
come at a time when it is not necessary to be careful about 
keeping preparations used for the leg off the plumage 
as much as possible. By giving attention to this at the 
beginning of the molt, or better just before it, one can do 
the work when the foot feathers are shortest and most 
scanty and interfere least with applications to the skin, 
and when it makes little difference if they are soiled with 
the preparations used. 

Ordinary Cleaning and Polishing of Legs — The time 
and amount of this depend on the condition of the legs, 
and this depends generally on the conditions under which 
the birds are kept. Those on good grass runs should re- 
quire no cleaning until just before going to the show. 
Those that have run in dry, bare yards, especially on alkali 
soils, will usually have less than the normal amount of oil 
in the skin of the leg, and its condition and appearance will 
be much improved if the legs and feet are washed and 
oiled several times before the final treatment. All that is 
necessary is to wash the legs with warm water and soap, 
and after wiping them dry apply a little oil or vaseline. 
Most poultrymen use the same preparations for this as 
for oiling the legs before exhibition. Many use the same 
mixture for both legs and combs. Some use oil or vaseline 
alone; others mix with it a little turpentine, camphor, 
alcohol or other volatile matter. The oil should be wiped 
quite dry after each application, and the birds should be 
kept where little dirt can adhere to the feet. 

The final cleaning of legs before exhibition has first 
the object of getting them perfectly clean. Until one 
has compared the yellow, white or flesh-colored shanks 
that appear perfectly clean in the yard with those of the 
same color as made absolutely clean and polished for ex- 
hibition, he has little idea how dirty the cleanest shank is 




HAMMOCK TO HOLD BIRD WHILE BEING PREPARED FOR EXHIBITION 

easy and convenient way to hold a bird while working on its feet and legs. Above — Detailed drawing showing how the 
low — how it ishung^ In No. 3the dotted lines show how it is fastened over the bird's back to hold the wings down. 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



121 



in the yard. Even when a novice has given the legs of 
his birds what he supposes is a sufficient cleaning and 
polishing he is usually surprised to see how far short they 
fall when compared with birds fitted by an expert. He 
may have noticed as he worked over the legs of his birds 
a little accumulation of dirt everywhere under the edges 
of the scales, but as no easy way of removing it occurs 
to him he concludes that as it cannot be brushed out the 
only thing to do is to leave it there. 

The expert does not leave it there. In most cases he 
removes it by the tedious but effective process of insert- 




HOLDIXG A BIRD TO DIP LEGS IX SOAP SOLUTION 

ing the point of a toothpick or small piece of soft wood 
under the edge of the scale and taking the dirt out in much 
the same manner as he would clean his own finger nails. 
That is the common process. It takes sometimes as much 
as an hour or two to clean the dirt from under the scales 
on the shanks of a bird. Another less laborious process 
preferred by some exhibitors is to dip the legs, after the 
bird has been washed and while the scales and skin are 
soft and loose, into thin soft soap, or an emulsion like 
that mentioned above for the treatment of scaly leg, and 
hold them there for a few minutes until the soap loosens 
the dirt under the scales when a little pressure on the 
scales- — applied by the fingers, beginning at the hock and 
working down — will force the dirt out with the soap and 
water that have worked under the scales. Some of those 
who use this method say they never find it necessary to 
use any implement to clean under the scales, but make 
the leg perfectly clean in this way. 

Whatever process is used, after the leg is clean it 
should be given an application of grease or oil, and this 
rubbed dry with a soft cloth. Black or slate legs, or dark 
willow legs do not require as much 
attention in washing, but they should 
be made clean to all appearances and 
then oiled and rubbed. The darker 
the leg the higher natural polish it 
will take. " 



Coloring and Staining Legs— Very little attention is 
given by expert exhibitors to the artificial coloring of 
legs. They are generally satisfied to do what can be done 
with clear oils, or oil mixtures and greases, to bring out 
fully the natural color of the shank. Most of the coloring 
is done by novices who do not realize that this is one 
of the easiest forms of faking to detect, and who perhaps 
have been erroneously informed that the coloring of legs 
is common. Any yellow stain will give added color to 
yellow legs. That most often used is butter color, three 
or four drops in a teaspoonful of sweet oil. Iodine and 
saffron are both sometimes used. For black or slate legs 
a little • finely powdered graphite is mixed with oil, or 
rubbed on the legs after they have been oiled. 

With the birds handled as much as they are in Amer- 
ican shows, it is generally impossible to put enough col- 
oring matter on legs to appreciably improve their color 
and escape detection. If a judge's hand gets a little warm 
and moist as he works, coloring matter on the legs of 
birds may come off on them. Where coloring is sus- 
pected, but is apparently too fast to come off with ordinary 
handling, the judge moistens a handkerchief or bit of rag 
with water, alcohol, or any volatile oil available, and rubs 
the shank until he either gets evidence or is convinced that 
the color is natural. While very high color is suspicious 
t sometimes proves to be entirely natural. In fact, I 
have seen legs on stock that was never exhibited or the 
legs treated with any preparation for any purpose that 
were so deeply and intensely yellow that in a showroom 
anyone would at first affirm without hesitation that the 
legs were artificially colored. But, as a rule, very high color 
on the legs of birds on exhibition arouses suspicion and 
if artificial color has been used the fact may be determined 
either by the appearance of the leg or by rubbing as 
above described. Unless the coloring matter is care- 
fully and successfully applied it will not be the same ev- 
erywhere, and in particular the skin under the scales 
which the coloring matter has not reached will be lighter 
in color than the rest. 

Trimming Spurs — This was at one time listed among 
the specifically prohibited practices, and it appears to be 
still regarded by some people as a form of "faking." As 
far as the exhibition room is concerned the question of 
deceit in the trimming of spurs can apply only where a 
cock is shown as a cockerel, and his spurs trimmed short 
to bear out the claim that he is entitled to entry in the 
cockerel class. In selling birds the shortened spur will 
sometimes make a bird that is past his prime look enough 
younger to be more acceptable to a customer who judges 
the age mainly 
5y the appear- 
in c e of the 
spurs. Quite 






full-feathered 



Rod on brackets extending around 
side of house and yard to prevent 
Cochins breaking foot feathering 



Bent willow 
coop or hampe 
ering being br 



work for interior of 
to prevent foot feabh- 
keu in transit 



122 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



apart from any question of deceit, the spurs of males which 
grow long and sharp should be trimmed to prevent them 
doing any injury to other birds or to persons handling 
them. Heavy males with sharp spurs often cut the bacKs 
and sides of females that are with them badly. 

To trim a spur, take a sharp and tolerably strong 
pocket knife. Hold the bird under the left arm with the 
left hand holding each foot as operated on in a position 




INTERIOR OF WASH ROOM AT OWEN FARMS, VINEYARD HAVEN, MASS. 

convenient for using the knife in the right hand. Start 
about a quarter of an inch, or a little more, back — that is, 
toward the leg — of the point decided on as marking the 
length of the shortened spur, and, cutting toward you and 
toward the point of the spur, work around and around 
it, always cutting a little deeper, not completely severing 
the shavings, but leaving them attached to the end, un- 
til the spur is cut through and the point falls away. Care 
should be taken to fix the position of the point of the 
shortened spur beyond the quick portion of it, for if this 
is cut into it may bleed badly. It is better to cut a little 
long and then trim down than to cut too short. 

Trimming Toenails — When the toenails are a little 
twisted, or are too long to look well the appearance of the 
foot may be improved by trimming them, cutting away 
most on the side in the direction of which the nail turns, and 
making the toe and nail look as straight as possible. 

Treatment for Stubs and Down — The removal of very 
small stubs and down leaves no trace visible upon ordinary 
inspection. When the stub is large enough to leave a hole 
that is not conspicuous, but still easily visible on close ex- 
amination, many exhibitors simply trim away with the 
point of a sharp knife any roughness around the edges 
of the hole, with the idea of making it as inconspicuous 
as possible without plugging it. Where the holes are so 
large that they show plainly they are filled with beeswax, 
soap, putty or paraffin. The "filler" can nearly always 
be readily seen when the shank is closely examined. If 
the evidence of sight is not sufficient it can be pricked out 
with the point of a knife, or sometimes washed out in 
warm water. 

Washing Poultry for Exhibition 

Practically all the white birds that are, shown at ex- 
hibitions of any importance are washed. A white bird 



that has not been well washed looks poor, ill-conditioned 
and out of place in good competition, no matter how good 
its actual quality may be. Many exhibitors of buff and 
partly white fowls wash their birds before exhibiting, 
and some wash dark-colored birds. The actual necessity 
of washing birds for exhibition is determined by the 
circumstances in any case. If an exhibitor in a class of 
birds of a color that it has not been the custom to wash 
puts a string of birds on exhibition 
that have been well washed and oth- 
erwise properly fitted he will in al- 
most every case win more prizes on 
condition than he is entitled to on 
quality without consideration of con- 
dition. So in any color variety where 
washing has not been practiced, if a 
leading exhibitor begins to regularly 
wash his birds, the rest will always 
have to follow suit. Breeders of oth- 
er than very light-colored fowls are 
always reluctant to begin a practice 
involving so much labor, and also re- 
quiring either the invasion of the 
home kitchen and laundry, or special 
arrangements for the work outside. 
Probably three-fourths of the birds 
that are washed before being 
shown are washed in the laundry or 
kitchen of the dwelling house, and in 
many cases the poultryman's wife as- 
sists him in such work — not infre- 
quently being the better washer and 
fitter of the two. 
Every poultryman who washes many birds however, 
soon becomes ambitious to have a properly fitted room or 
building especially for that purpose, and a number of 
prominent exhibitors have complete and convenient equip- 
ment for it. The equipment required is not at all expen- 
sive. The essentials are enough exhibition coops for the 
number of birds to be washed at one time, three or four 
tubs, a long bench or table on which to set them, one or 
two dripping coops, and 1 such heating apparatus as is 
needed to warm the room to a temperature of 80 to 90 
degrees and to furnish the required amount of hot water. 
The washing room at Owen Farms, Vineyard Haven, 
Mass., an interior view of which is shown in an ac- 
companying illustration, is partitioned off in one of the 
buildings originally built for a long brooder house, the 
remainder of the building being used as a conditioning 
room, and to coop birds awaiting shipment to customers. 
This room has capacity for drying seventy birds. It has, to 
furnish heat, a large heating stove and a long stove of the 
type commonly used with farm feed cookers, with a tank 
for heating the water needed. There is nothing here but 
what any exhibitor could provide on such scale as he re- 
quired at comparatively small cost. 

The great advantage of a room especially for washing 
fowls, is that in it one can work with entire freedom as far 
as the effects of water upon the surroundings is concerned 
and so give his undivided attention to his job. The prem- 
ises do not have to be restored after the work is done to 
such order and neatness as a room* in the dwelling, but 
can have the rough cleaning appropriate in outbuildings. 
Some laundries with cement floors and with draining ar- 
rangements that admit of flushing the floor meet the 
needs even better than most outside washing rooms, and 
some exhibitors whose wives are equally interested in the 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



123 



results do not regard the inconveniences associated with 
the use of the kitchen for washing poultry as serious; but 
a great deal of the poor washing that makes a bird lock 
worse than when unwashed is due to washing under con- 
ditions which make the one doing the work feel that the 
surroundings must not be mussed up too much, and the 
reluctance to do the work of cleaning up undoubtedly 
deters many people with small strings of birds from un- 
dertaking to wash them. Of course it is possible to wash a 
few small birds in a kitchen, but it is a great deal more 
of a job to do so than to wash several times as many 
where everything is arranged for the work in hand, and no 
particular consideration has to be given to restoring order 
for other work when this is done. 

Not only is it an advantage to have a properly ar- 
ranged and equipped room for washing birds, but the work 
is much facilitated if the workman "dresses for the part." 
An oilskin or rubber apron of ample proportions and 
rubber boots are needed. Further than this the matter 
of dress is a question of omitting everything not required 
by decency, for the work is to be done in a dogday tem- 
perature and will require some exertion. 

There are at least as many ways of washing birds as 
there are expert washers, and as in most of the operations 
of the poultry yard, a considerable number of the experts 
think their way is the only way. The methods used at 
Owen Farms are more simple than most of the instructions 
given. A number of the things generally mentioned as 
essentials are disregarded or omitted there. To begin 
with it is taken for granted that the feathers are washable 
stuff, and that fowls — though not amphibious — can be 
thoroughly soaked without being injured in the least if 
they are kept at the right temperature afterward until 
the plumage is completely dried. Proceeding on these 
assumptions, their method is, comprehensively, to wash 



the bird and let it dry in a temperature of 85 to 90 de- 
grees. I will give the details of their process as staged 
for the purpose of illustrating it in this book. Following 
I will give methods as used or described by a number of 
others. It should be said in regard to the simplicity of 
Owen Farms methods that the birds here are relatively 
clean to begin with. There are no railroads or factories 
on the Island; there is none of the smoke and soot that 
in many places soils fowls badly; the conditions under 
which the birds live are ideal in every respect; and there 
is about the same difference between washing a bird here 
and washing one that has grimy, sooty, stained and fouled 
plumage, as there is between giving a bath to a child that 
has recently had one and giving a bath to a child that has 
not had one for months. 

Four tubs of water are placed in line on a table as 
shown in the picture. In the first the water is as hot as 
the man can comfortably bear his hand in. He uses a 
large sponge and, before taking a bird, with the sponge 
and a bar of soap he makes a suds that overflows the tub. 
Then taking the bird between his hands, he puts it without 
ceremony into the tub of suds and water, submerging it 
at first, moving it about in the water a little to wet under 
the feathers better; then placing the bird on its feet, he 
controls it and moves the wings or parts the feathers as 
necessary with one hand, while with the sponge in the 
other he works and rubs the soapy suds into every part 
of the plumage. When the bird is thoroughly soaped he 
continues washing the plumage, working all over the bird, 
as long as his experience indicates is necessary to get the 
dirt loose, giving special attention to any parts he may 
have noticed as particularly soiled. Then he lifts the 
bird from the tub and holding it between his hands first 
allows what soapy water will run off freely to run to the 
floor, and then holding the bird with one hand passes the 




WASHING A WHITE BIRD AT OWEN FARMS 
Left — Putting the bird in the first tub. Right — Just after taking from first tub 



124 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



other several times over the body — from the head to the 
rear — to take away as much more of the soap as will 
run out of the feathers under this slight pressure. The ob- 
ject of letting the soapy water drain to the floor instead 
of back into the tub from which the bird has just been 
taken is to keep the water in the first tub clean enough 
for use as long as possible. There is more dirt in the 
water that drips and is squeezed from the plumage than in 
the water in the tub. The bird is not transferred directly 
to the second tub because to do so would be to add to 
the water in it both dirt and soap that are not wanted. 











Him s ' 


wY — r ~4H 


Ugm M B£- ' "*^g 







INTERIOR OF WASH ROOM OX PLANT OF JOHN S MARTIN 

Drying coops are put on benches before the windows, supplementing the stationary coops 
along rear wall 

The water in the second tub is not as hot as in the 
first, but is comfortably warm. That in the third tub is 
cold, as also is the water in the fourth and last tub, which 
is blued as for white clothes. From the time the bird 
goes into the second tub the process is a washing and 
rinsing process to remove the soap from the plumage, on 
the principle that with the removal of the soap all the 
dirt will also be removed. The bird is moved in the 
water, and the feathers are manipulated with the hands 
or sponged as seems most effective to remove soap. The 
operator's judgment as to when the feathers are free 
from soap is guided partly by sight, but more by the 
sense of touch. He keeps the bird in Tub. No. 2 until 
it seems to him the water is as soapy as the plumage, and 
is therefore no longer effective to remove soap, then 
transfers it to the third tub, first letting it drip to reduce 
as much as possible the amount of soap added to the water 
in that tub when the bird is put in it. The rinsing in the 
third tub should remove all soap. Then the bird is passed 
through the bluing water, and from it directly into one 
of the dripping coops seen at the far end of the table. 

These coops are closed on the sides, back and top, have 
a slat bottom, and the whole front is on hinges so that 
the birds are handled easily in and out. A bird is left 
in the dripping coop while two birds are being washed — 
perhaps half an hour — and is then transferred to one of the 
exhibition coops in the f"oom where it remains until the 
next morning, by which time it is perfectly dry. The 
temperature of the room is kept up to 80 or more while the 
birds are drying. It is then gradually allowed to cool off, 



or if another lot of birds must be washed at once, the 
newly washed birds are moved to the coops in the condi- 
tioning and fitting room adjoining. 

Except to remove soapy water from the plumage 
between consecutive tubbings, nothing whatever is done 
by hand to dry or assist the drying of the birds. All 
that is considered here a waste of time and labor. No tow- 
els or fans are used. 

In giving other methods of washing I will begin with 
the instructions given by one of the early English breed- 
ers and exhibitors of White Cochins, as published in the 
first edition of Wright's "Illustrated 
Book of Poultry" in 1874. It is worth 
noting that the art of washing fowls 
was first cultivated and with remark- 
able success by the exhibitors«of this 
most difficult of all varieties to wash 
to perfection. For many years prior 
to 1902-3 the White Cochin classes 
were among the most spectacular fea- 
tures of New York and Boston Shows, 
often numbering from fifty to sixty 
birds, and a large part of the class of 
remarkable quality and washed and 
fitted to perfection. 

Quoting Mr. Elijah Smith, in 
Wright's book: 

"Take a washtub of ten or twelve 
inches deep — oval shape is the best on 
account of the bird's tail; let the tub 
be sufficiently large to hold the bird 
comfortably. Then take of clean, soft, 
warm water and fill the tub about 
three parts full, so that the bird 
when pressed down by the hand 
in the water will be covered over it's 
back, up to the neck. Then take white 
soap and a sponge and rub it in the water until it is well 
mixed and you have a good suds; rub the bird well with 
soap on all the dirty parts, and keep sponging the bird un- 
til you see that it is quite clean, which you will be able to 
see plain when wet. Do not be afraid to rub the feathers, 
as it will do them no harm as long as you do not lay on so 
heavily as to break them. If the bird is rough in the wa- 
ter, as some that have never been washed before some- 
times are, keep one hand across the bird's back and wings, 
by which means you will easily hold it quiet. Be sure and 
rub your hand well among the fluff and feathers about the 
breast. 

"To wash the head, take it between both hands and 
rub it well backward and forward, as if you were wash- 
ing something in the balls of your hands. Do not be 
afraid of the water going into its mouth, as the soap and 
water will do it no harm whatever, but the contrary, as 
it will tend to clear it out; in fact, I have often washed 
birds when I could not get anything else to cure them of 
disease, and it has answered remarkably well on many 
occasions. 

"When you see the bird is quite clean, then take 
and rinse thoroughly with clean cold water; put plenty 
on it. until the soap is well out, for if you leave any 
soap in, the feathers will not come right in a reasonable 
time. When clear of soap, let them stand to drain a little, 
and don't be afraid of their getting cold, as the cold water 
prevents that by closing all the pores of the body; then 
press as much water off the feathers with your hand as pos- 
sible, and don't be afraid of hurting the feathers as they will 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



125 



come all right again as they begin to dry, and will begin 
to web again in the course of an hour. When this is done, 
take the bird and put it before a nice fire — not too hot, 
but what we would call, a good hot fire — and keep turning 
them with the wet parts toward it, taking care not to 
have them so near as to blister their faces and combs, 
as they easily blister after washing. When the birds 
are nearly dry, you may put them in baskets that have 
got lining in — such as we use for sending to exhibition — 
and, if night, you may put three or 
four of them together, if the bas- 
ket is large enough for them to lie 
down in comfortably. By this means 
it will create a warm steam that will 
pass through the whole of the body 
feathers and cause them to web beau- 
tifully, and the birds will be quite 
ready for exhibition in twenty-four 
hours. 

"If the bird is looking very ill after 
rinsing, keep it in motion as much as 
possible by getting hold of it under 
the breast with one hand and lifting 
it up, when it will use its wings free- 
ly, and this will cause the blood to 
circulate; also give one or two cay- 
enne pods, which will warm it as well. 
This is when you see a bird that goes 
black in comb, and looks as if it 
would die, which heavy birds some- 
times do: also handle them pretty 
freely, as it will do them good. Some- 
times a bird will faint when put in warm water to wash; 
in that case, I always throw cold water on it, when a bird 
will at once recover, and after a minute or so you may put 
it in again, and finish washing it without it showing any 
symptoms of fainting again." 

Wright's further comments on the foregoing instruc- 
tions add to their interest and value. Said he: "Many good 
washers prefer to dry the fowls after washing in a cage 
or box of ample size, littered with clean and well-broken 
straw. This box is wired in the front and top, but closed 
at back and sides to prevent draft, and placed with the 
open front at just such a distance from an ample fire that 
a genial warmth may fill the box, but avoid a scorching 
heat. We may 
add that it is in 
drying that 
judgment and 
experience are 
chiefly required, 
as too strong a 
heat withers up 
the plumage 
and makes it 
ragged, while 
too little causes 
it to hang to- 
gether and ap- 
pear draggled; 
but if the right 
temperature be 
hit upon and 
the soap has 
been thorough- 
ly washed out, 
by degrees the 



plumage fills out, and in a few hours the birds assume their 
'company clothes.' It is to assist this that Mr. E. Smith so 
strongly advises leaving the birds with a little dampness 
still in the plumage, the steam assisting the fresh webbing 
of the feathers. In summertime the cage may be put out in 
the sun if preferred; but the glare seems to distress the 
birds much, and we should prefer a fire. Some poultry- 
men are unusually clever in drying fowls, and by holding 
them near the fire, and carefully removing them for a 





IT- 





JOHN S. MAKTIN'S DRAINING COOP 
Left — Closed. Right — Open 

little whenever they appear distressed with the heat, man- 
age to avoid the scorching we have spoken of, and can 
dry a pen of Cochins in about two hours: but we cannot 
pretend to give ■the precise details of such management, 
which can only be successfully practiced after great ex- 
perience has been obtained. As an example of what may 
be done by an adept, however, we may relate as within 
our own knowledge that the writer of the preceding re- 
marks on a certain occasion received back his birds about 
ten o'clock in the morning, fed them, washed them, 
returned them to the hampers all wet as they were, and 
got them off by rail for another show at twelve: tak- 
ing them out and drying them by the fire in a junction 
waiting room on his way to the exhibition, where he 
again carried off the first prize." 

To complete the information from the same source, it 
is worth while to make some extracts from the instruc- 
tions for washing a fowl given by Wright in the revised 
edition of "The Book of Poultry" in 1902: 

"Before washing birds of his own, a novice will do 
well, if possible, to get a practical lesson: otherwise he 
will be slow to grasp the very thorough character of the 
process. This thoroughness is the secret of success, and 
most people fail in their early efforts because too nervous 
or squeamish about damaging the feathers. It is little or 
no use to sponge down the outside plumage. At least 
one large oval tub, not much short of a foot in depth 
for large fowls, must be provided, and unless there be 
facility for rapidly emptying and renewing the water 
twice, it is better to have three at once. Anyhow, plenty 
of hot water must be at command. Also provide a basin- 
ful of soap solution, such as washerwomen use, made 
by cutting up some good soap into thin slices and dis- 
solving in hot water into almost a thin melted jelly. 
There is also wanted a good compact sponge, rather soft, 



126 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



and just as large as the hand can squeeze easily, and 
some soft, dry towels. In commencing operations the 
feet and legs should be washed first and separately*. 
Then the tub is filled about two-thirds with water about 
the heat of an ordinary hot bath and the bird is stood 
in this; it should be at least deep enough to come well 




UPSTAIRS DRYING ROOM IN JOHN S. MARTIN'S WASHING AND CONDITIONING 
HOUSE 



up about the body, and if when the fowl is pushed down it 
covers the back, all the better. The first thing of all is 
to be sure that the bird is thoroughly drenched to the 
skin; just dipping in does not do this. The plumage must 
be parted and worked about with the bare hand under 
the water, or with the sponge, till every feather is soaked 
to the root. Then we begin with the soap, taking up some 
with the sponge and thoroughly rub- 
bing it into the fowl, one place at a 
time. It is to be a good thorough 
rubbing, all sort of ways, except that 
we should not go straight against 
the lie of the feathers, though we 
doubt if even that would do much 
damage. But down and across, to and 
fro, and energetically too, with the idea 
always of getting down to the skin; 
keeping on at one part till more dirt 
ceases to come off. There is really no 
danger at this stage, and no difficulty 
provided the operator is not afraid to 
do his work and sticks to the one point 
that he has got to get his bird clean. 
About the breast it is necessary to rub 
almost up and down, .vhich is best done 
with the bare hand; indeed we have 
seen a bird well washed with hands 
alone, not using a sponge at all. The 
fluff also requires the hand well work- 
ed about. Some use a brush to scrub, 



but this is not free from risk; not to the feather as a whole, 
but proper webbing afterwards; several times we have 
seen birds scrubbed with a brush, which did not seem to 
web smoothly when dry, and believe that the bristles 
brush out or off some of the tiny microscopic barbules 
which hold the web together. One very good washer we 
knew used chiefly a sponge wrapped 
in flannel, especially for the seconda- 
ries of the wings and for the tail; the 
slight roughness, he said, brought the 
dirt off well. It is best to wash the 
head last in our opinion, for the sim- 
ple reason that most fowls stand 
quietly till the head is done. **** It 

I may be well worth remarking that if 
a fowl has to be left for a minute to 
get anything, and there be no assist- 
ant, the wet sponge laid across its 
back between the wings will general- 
ly keep it quite quiet, believing that 
it is held. Sometimes a heavy patient 
will appear faint in hot water, or even 
go dark in comb, as if about to die; 
in that case, a good douche of cold 
water should at once be given, which 
will bring it around, and it is curious 
that it never, or hardly ever, faints 
a second time." 

The remainder of the directions 
in the later edition of Wright's book 
does not materially differ from the 
earlier statement or add any impor- 
tant detail to it. 
I find more useful additional details in an article by 
an English exhibitor which appeared in the "Fanciers 
Journal" in 1890, from which I quote: 

"Birds should be washed two or three days before 
wanted for the show, and our favorite time for, 'tubbing' 
is when the sun sets; then the birds are more docile and 
likely to be quiet. We get everything ready in advance. 



*The object in washing the feet 
and separately is to avoid getting the 
that is on them into the water used 
plumage. Where the feet are quite clea 
is not necessary. 




RACK USED BY MR. MARTIN TO PLACE COOPS ON TO DRY BIRDS OUTDOORS IN 
FINE WEATHER 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



127 



Let us name the articles, which must naturally be pro- 
cured in such quantities as the number of birds to be 
washed necessitates. Two or three good-sized washing 
tubs, or zinc baths. If the latter are used, care must be 
taken that they are free from any grease. Cans of hot 
water, and ditto cold. Water impregnated with iron 
must on no account be used — rain water, spring water, or 
clear pond water, are all preferable. Some white curd 
soap. Some best quality soft soap. A wooden nail brush 
of fair size. A sponge. Some towelling. A wineglassful 
of some cordial in a phial. And then last, not least, a 
good open fire which can be kept for the birds exclusively 
for the whole time of drying. Two trestles, and a well- 
washed scaffolding plank. This list of articles may fright- 
en some, but in establishments where white poultry are 
frequently exhibited, when once obtained and kept 
ready on hand, they will always be useful, and where ex- 
hibiting is rarely indulged in, then the nearest approach to 
the requisites named can be utilized. 

"We start, then, with all our requirements around 
us, and our birds in baskets, and we set to work. The 
same waters will wash three fairly clean birds. We will 
put in one tub of warm water, as hot as the hands can 
comfortably bare it, a good lump of soft soap, and rub- 
bing it through our fingers we will make it a tub of 
suds. We must melt up by constant friction and rubbing 
every atom of this soap, then if the water is too much 
chilled by doing so, we must again pour in hot water to 
obtain a comfortable temperature, then we place in it 
our cleanest bird, and we soak it from head to foot. With 
our hands we rub the suds under the wings, in the thigh 
feathering, round the back — rubbing always toward the 
tail — and in the neck hackles; we do it thoroughly; we 
make the bird look like a 'drowned rat'; we take the 
sponge, and with the curd soap make a lather and go over 
all parts carefully but thoroughly. With a nail brush 
we wash the legs and feet, and then, with sponge in 
hand, we rub over and over again the whole body from 
head to tail; we fear nothing with a big fowl so long as 
the head is above the suds: and then when we think all 
is clean, we extract a feather from such a part of the 
bird as was the dirtiest, and rinsing it in cold water we 
see if it is white and clean. If so we stop; if not, we re- 
peat the washing until the plumage is pure. 

"We next pop the bird into the second tub, which has 
been filled with lukewarm water, and wash out every 
particle of soap; we rinse with our hands and with a 
sponge every portion of the body; and then when we think 
all the soap has been fully removed, we pull out a feather 
and place it in the mouth. Should it give a soupcon of 
soapy flavor, we rinse again, but if it tastes quite clean the 
bird is placed on an unlined empty poultry basket to drip, 
and the second cleanest bird goes through the same pro- 
cess, as by the time that is completed the first one is ready 
to dry. 

"The drying operation requires great care but is 
equally simple. We take the bird that has been washed 
firmly in the hands by the thighs, and with a sudden swing, 
hold it up in the air, and it will stretch out its wings, and 
flourishing them about will well shake itself several times. 
Then we place it on the basket — still upside down — to ob- 
tain a firm basis, and gently rub with the towels from 
head to tail, then one more good shake in the air and our 
bird goes to the fire. The drying room must have had the 
clean scaffold placed upon the trestles — not too near the 
fire, but well in front of it — and on it the birds must be 
placed, tails first fronting to the heat. We generally, if 



we have several birds, place first a cock, and then two 
hens, and then another cock, and so on. They will sit 
like lambs, as if pinioned to the plank, and should dry 
gradually. 

"If many birds have to be washed it will require an 
attendant in the drying room as well as at the washtub, to 
continually turn the birds for flie first two or three hours, 
so that no part may dry too quickly, and to see that the 
faces do not 'catch' from the heat. Should specimens dry 
too hastily, their feathers will not lie smooth. Many a 
bird — Light Brahmas especially — we have noticed at 
shows to have been spoiled by having the saddle feathers 
curled, sometimes almost similar to an ostrich tip. This 
comes from drying too quickly. The whole body must be 
dried gradually by turning it around just as our cooks roast 
joints or game, by continued revolutions before an open 
fire. 

"When all the birds have been washed and placed 
upon the board, those at the ends will want moving in 
turn to the middle, and those in the middle to the ends, 
that none may dry too quickly. Should a bird's ear lobes 
'catch' from the heat of the fire they will become a dark 
purple black, and should be immediately gently rubbed 
with vaseline, but as blisters are usually sure to follow, 
where a face has been badly 'caught' the specimen will be 
greatly damaged for exhibition purposes for a long period, 
and we cannot too strongly impress on fanciers the desir- 
ability of keeping the faces and combs of recently washed 
birds well from the fire and constantly turned. 

"We do not approve of drying in baskets. To begin 
with, cocks — especially Leghorns, Minorcas, White Dork- 
ings and those with sickle feathers — are wont to crouch 
in corners and their tails, drying against the sides, be- 
come out of shape and are rarely carried afterwards in 
the show pen as they should be. But by washing the birds 
at sunset and leaving them all night on the board in the 
warm dark drying room they will in the morning be ready 
to be placed in exhibition pens which have been thickly 
littered with coarsely cut straw chaff, or in roomy baskets, 
and there they will continue to dry and gradually fluff 
out and plume themselves. 

"Smaller birds — like Silkies and Sultans — require more 
care. The former are apt to drop their leg feathering 
if put in too hot water, and the latter sometimes faint. We 
must in conclusion mention that birds when once washed 
are more liable to become soiled than are those that 
have never been tubbed. Their plumage becomes some- 
how more liable to catch the dirt." 

Before leaving the heavily feathered fowls, I will 
quote from an American exhibitor, who contributed his 
methods to the Reliable Poultry Journal of December, 
1904, Mr. E. Wyatt. Some of the details of his method 
of washing are different, and he introduces some other 
features in drying birds. Says he: 

"The fowls that I exhibit are Cochins, the hardest 
variety to wash, because of the length and fluffiness of 
their feathers. I always wash in a room- in which there 
is a good hot fire. Everything is in readiness before the 
washing commences. The birds are in their shipping 
coops in the room, and are washed in turn. Three tubs 
are placed near the fire; the first two are half filled with 
warm, soft water heated to blood heat. The third con- 
tains cold water with a little bluing. A fowl is first 
placed in the tub number one. It is held firmly, with 
its head toward the operator, so that it cannot flap its 
wings. It is advisable before commencing to wash to 
hold the fowl quietly in the water for a short time in order 



128 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



that it may understand the situation. Then with a sponge 
commence pouring water over the fowl's back and rubbing 
the feathers in the direction of their natural position. 
When the feathers are slightly damp, begin applying the 
soap. White castile soap, or shaving soap, is satisfactory. 
Rub the soap over the sponge, and continue working the 
suds into the plumage until it is thoroughly soaped, and 
the fowl is wet to the skin. When you believe the fowl 
is perfectly clean, remove it to tub number two. In this 
the fowl is rinsed by first rubbing the sponge over the 
feathers, and then with a dipper, by pouring water over 
the fowl's back and parts. If the dipper is held about 
a foot above the fowl, the force of the water will soon 
remove the suds. When the soap is completely removed 
the fowl is placed in the third tub, which contains the cold 
water and bluing. A minute in this tub is sufficient, the 
main object being to induce a quick circulation of the 
blood and to prevent the fowl from catching cold. 

"The fowl is afterwards placed beside the fire, and 
as much water as possible is pressed from the feathers 
with the hands. Later, towels are used to dry it as 
completely as possible. The fowl is not rubbed with the 
towel, but it is wrapped about, so as not to break any of 
the feathers. It is then placed near the stove, but not close 
enough to scorch the feathers, or so that the heat will curl 
them up. The fowl should then be given to another person 
who keeps fanning it and turning the bird around so that it 
will dry rapidly. A brisk fanning is important for two 
reasons. It opens the feathers and helps them assume 
their natural appearance. They also dry more rapidly. 
In drying the fluff I find it advisable to fan against the 
feathers instead of with them, as you work right to the 
skin in this manner and are not simply drying the feathers 
on the surface. The wings are held up one at a time, 
and fanned to dry the feathers underneath, for these feath- 
ers take the longest to dry. By working in this way it 
is not long until the fowl is completely dry and looks 
well. While the latter person is fanning, the first one is 
going on with the washing. Sometimes it is convenient to 
fan a number of birds at once. While each is being oper- 
ated on the remainder stand drying slowly before the fire. 

"For white birds it is a good plan to dampen a sponge 
thoroughly with peroxide of hydrogen and sponge the 
feathers well before you commence drying. Care must 
be taken that it does not touch the legs or beak. After 
using the peroxide a little ammonia should also be rubbed 
over the feathers to remove it. Fowls other than white 
do not need as thorough a washing, but a surface washing 
without soap will produce good results, as it removes any 
dirt and causes the specimen to appear more attractive." 

Mr. U. R. Fishel's method of washing, drying and 
fluffing White Plymouth Rocks as given a few years ago 
in the "American Poultry World," is as follows: 

"If you have a small number to exhibit, prepare to 
wash your birds four days before the show. First, clean 
up your coops nicely, .putting in fresh straw, and see to 
it that there is no dust on side of coop, on wires, or in 
the room. If possible have a warm place to wash, your 
birds. Heat a boiler of soft water, and secure four wash- 
ing tubs. In the first tub place four inches of lukewarm 
water, just enough to cut the dirt nicely. In tubs two 
and three place five or six inches of lukewarm water. 
Have tub four nearly full of water with the chill off. This 
tub is to be used for the bluing water. Make bluing 
water a little stronger in blue than if bluing white clothes. 
Take a cake of Ivory soap, a soft sponge, several Turk- 
ish towels, a couple of palm-leaf fans, and you are ready. 



"Place the bird in tub number one, thoroughly wetting 
the feathers in every section of the plumage. Keep the 
left hand on the bird so that it cannot fly out of the tub. 
Always rub with the plumage, never against it. After 
you have the bird wet, use soap, beginning at the head 
and hackle, washing clean: then the back, tail, fluff, breast 
and body in rotation as named. After you have washed the 
bird clean get all the water you can out of the plumage, 
and then place the bird in tub number two. Thoroughly 
rinse the bird, taking a sponge and getting clean water 
through every part of the plumage, using one hand to loos- 
en up the feathers. Take plenty of time for this, and 
when you have all the soap washed out, place the bird in 
tub number three and do the work all over again. In this 
way you are sure to get all the soap out of the plumage. 

"Washing birds is not such a difficult job once you 
get the knack. After getting all water possible out of 
the plumage, dip the bird in bluing water, let it drain, and 
then get all water possible out of the plumage again. 
Now place the bird on a barrel covered with a clean 
cloth so that there is no danger of the bird getting dirty, 
take the sponge and get all water possible out of the 
plumage; with the towel dry the plumage as much as 
possible, then take the fans and fan the bird, all the time 
picking out the plumage — that is, separating the feathers. 
This will make the bird fluffy and fine when dried. Place 
the bird in a warm room or near a warm stove — not too 
close to a hot stove, for the heat will curl the damp feath- 
ers and ruin your work." 

Mr. Arthur G. Duston, who was the earliest of the 
prominent White Wyandotte breeders to adopt the prac- 
tice of washing his show birds, and who has ever since 
been recognized as one of the most skillful fitters of 
white show birds, in the same paper gave his advice as 
to the essentials in washing birds in the following brief 
statement, which — it will be noted — brings out a very 
important point in relation to the effect of heat in drying: 

"Fitting a bird for the show is an art and only after 
years of experience can one gain all the points and phases 
of the work. Everything must be all ready before start- 
ing: three tubs of water — one hot, one lukewarm and 
one cold with a small quantity of bluing in it (about what 
would ordinarily be used in rinsing clothes). Ivory or any 
other good white soap. Have plenty of hot water if you 
are to wash many, to renew your tubs with, and a good 
hot fire to dry the birds out quickly. After thoroughly 
wetting the bird in hot water, scrub as you would a rag, 
rubbing into the feathers a quantity of soap, and when 
thoroughly clean rinse in warm water, taking care to get 
rid of all the soap, then rinse again in bluing water, hold it 
up so it will drain off some, and your bird is ready 
for the coop. Of course it is dripping wet, but by watch- 
ing a bit, and adding fresh sawdust from time to time, 
it is ready for the heat and drying. Place it in an ex- 
hibition coop beside the fire, and have two inches of dry 
pine sawdust in the bottom, and see that it is thoroughly 
dry before removing from the heat. Don't attempt to 
dry too quickly: if you do you will see bunches of those 
crinkled, curling feathers so often seen in the showroom. 
Lots of heat, but not too close to it, should be the rule. 
Feel under the wings for dampness to ascertain when 
the bird is dry. There is one thing I always look out for; 
do not take the bird out into the cold from the warm room 
which has been allowed to cool off, but keep in coops, 
reducing the fire until the room is the same as the out- 
side temperature. With this precaution there will never be 
any trouble from birds catching cold after washing." 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



129 



Mr. D. W. Young of White Leghorn fame used .five 
tubs to wash the birds that for so many years outclassed 
all others at Madison Square Garden. He briefly gave his 
method in the following statement in the same paper: 

"After confining the bird in an exhibition coop for 
three or four days in order to get it accustomed to con- 
finement. I take a basin of hot water and soap and scrub 
with a nail brush his head, comb, legs and feet thoroughly. 
Next, take five tubs of soft water, the first being heated 
to a temperature of about 110 degrees. Submerge the bird, 
head and all, in this tub. After the feathers are soaked 
through to the skin, I take a cake of Ivory soap and rub 
it well into the feathers until a lather is formed. Am not 
afraid of using too much soap. After I am sure the 
bird is clean, I rinse off as miuch of the suds as possible 
in this water. Next the bird is put in the tub number 
two — in which the water is heated to about 90 degrees — 



how the Greystone White Plymouth Rocks were fitted 
before the stock was acquired by Owen Farms where it 
continued to be in his charge. It will be noted that at 
that period Mr. Davey followed the practice of drying 
partially with towels, a feature of the process he now 
regards with an indulgent smile. It should be noted. also 
that in presenting the subject I am coming now to the 
practice of more than one washing. Mr. Davey's state- 
ment reads: 

"The first wash should be about two weeks before 
show time. If possible, have a warm room in which to 
wash them. Clean your coops thoroughly, and litter well 
with coarse shavings or cut straw. I prefer the shavings 
as they are less liable to stain the plumage while it is wet. 
Place coops quite close to the stove where you can get 
a heat of about 90 degrees, even a little warmer will not 
hurt them until they commence to dry. 




WASH ROOM AT MORRIS 

Showing the heater, hot water tank and ''Rawnsley Dryer" used in t 

cabinet, and specifications fc 

and rinsed well in this. Then put in tub number three 
— same temperature — and rinse carefully in this water. 
Next it is placed in tub number four, same temperature, 
then in tub number five which is cold and blued a little 
more than is ordinarily used in laundry work. After tak- 
ing the bird out of the last tub, he is placed in a room 
heated to about ninety degrees, in a training coop about 
three feet square, with clean-cut straw or shavings for 
litter, being very careful to keep it clean so that the feath- 
ers will not become soiled. Of course it pays to look 
after the birds while they are drying as the feathers are 
liable to become twisted, especially the sickle feathers of 
the male birds. In about twenty-four hours after this 
is done the plumage will be in perfect shape and the bird, 
if naturally white, will be perfectly clean and as white as 
snow." 

In the same symposium, Mr. Frank H. Davey told 



FARM. LEBANON, OHIO 

he demonstration reported on page 131. A separate illustration of the 
r it are given on page 132 

"Be sure to have a good supply of soft water. Fill 
two washtubs about half full of as waim water as is 
comfortable to the hand. Fill the third tub about two- 
thirds full of water with the chill taken off. This tub is 
for the bluing. If you intend washing twice, enough 
bluing can be used to show quite plainly when the bird 
is dry. This will mostly disappear, or will wash out at the 
second washing and will help to remove any stains or 
creaminess. 

"For the washing you will require: Ivory soap, a 
good-sized soft sponge, and two or three towels. Place 
the bird in the tub of warm water, keep the left hand on 
the back to prevent flying out of the tub. Use plenty of 
soap, go through every section thoroughly, always rub- 
bing with the feathers and not against them. When 
you have the bird thoroughly lathered, begin at the head 
and clean each section thoroughly; do not leave a section 



130 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 





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WASHING BIRDS AT MORRIS FARM 
Thoroughly soaking the feathers. Lett — Mr. Reynolds; right- 

of the bird until sure every particle of dirt has been 
removed. If you skip from one section to another, you 
are sure to miss some spots which will spoil the job. 

"Do not make the mistake of using too little soap; 
the feathers, being oily, will not take the water until they 
are thoroughly soaped. Legs and feet should be thorough- 
ly scrubbed with a soft brush. When you have thor- 
oughly removed the dirt, place the bird in the other tub 
of warm water and rinse thoroughly. Here you will need 
your sponge — go through every section just as thoroughly 
as in washing and remove every particle of soap. This 
will require nearly as much time as it did to wash the 
bird. If the soap is not thoroughly removed, the plumage 
will not take the bluing water except in the spots where 
it is removed and the result would be the blotchy plumage 
which we so often see in the showroom. It also causes 
the feathers to mat together, feel sticky to the touch. 
and catch every particle of dust. 

"When the bird is thoroughly 
rinsed, dip two or three times in the 
bluing water and hold long enough 
to make sure the water gets thorough- 
ly through the plumage. Place the 
bird on a draining board or box and 
get all the water out of the feathers 
you can with the sponge, then wipe 
with the towel and place in the drying 
coop. See that birds do not crowd in 
corners of the coops and bend the tail 
feathers while drying as it is very 
hard to get them back to their natur- 
al shape again. After they are thor- 
oughly dried they should be placed in 
good roomy pens well littered with 
straw. Do not allow them any place 
to dust themselves; handle them all 
yoii can; place them occasionally in a 
training coop; pose them with your 
hand, also with a stick, and keep at it 
until they hold the pose for several 
seconds. 



"The second wash should be the 
same as the first except less bluing 
should be used. Do not use enough 
so that it is visible after the bird is 
dry." 

Mr. M. L. Chapman, now of Wil- 
burtha Poultry Farm, long known as 
one of the best fitters of white birds 
and a successful exhibitor of both 
White Plymouth Rocks and White 
Leghorns, some years ago gave in the 
Reliable Poultry Journal this method 
of fitting birds with three washings: 

"About three weeks before the 
show, if we are to exhibit say thirty 
birds, we select about forty-five and 
give them a good thorough wash, us- 
ing Ivory soap and water about as 
warm as we can comfortably work in 
it. Use a brush on head and legs, 
and on any stained spots in the plum- 
age. Rinse very thoroughly in a sep- 
arate tub of a little cooler water, then 
dip in a third tub of tepid water that 
is slightly blued. Do not have water 
-Mr. Rawnsley too blue, as a bird that gets 

streaked with blue is ruined for the time being. Do not 
wipe the bird with a cloth or try to squeeze out the water 
with your hands. Simply drain for a moment or two 
over the tub, and then put it in a cage with a burlap 
bag in the bottom to catch the water. Have the room 
warm, and if possible keep the unwashed birds in a cooler 
room. The birds should be practically dry in three hours. 
We put the wet birds near the stove and gradually work 
them back as they dry. Reduce the heat in the room 
gradually as the birds dry off. You can wash about five 
birds in a tub of water, then dump out all three tubs and 
replace. Of course soft water is much better than hard. 
It will take two or three men about all day to wash a 
string of this size, and it is not an easy job either. 

"After your forty-five birds are all dried out, you can 
go over the string and pick out the birds that did not im- 
prove with a wash, so to speak. Some will prove to 




WASHING THK SIDES WITH THE HIUD ON HOARD ACROSS THE THIS 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



131 



be considerably whiter than others; some will probably 
have stained spots on the plumage that no amount of 
washing would remove. We select about thirty-five and 
take special care of them for another week and then give 
them another wash. This second wash improves them 
fully as much as did the first one. After they are dry we 
make our final selection of the thirty that we shall show, 
and in about four days give them another thorough wash- 
ing. After this third wash the birds certainly look beau- 
tiful and are a sight to please the eye." 



DEMONSTRATION IN WASHING WHITE ORPING- 
TONS BY HAROLD RAWNSLEY AND CLARE 
REYNOLDS AT MORRIS FARM, FEB- 
RUARY, 1921 
Note — The report of this demonstration is made from 
notes taken by Grant M. Curtis, Editor Reliable Poultry 
Journal, during an interview in which Mr. Rawnsley dis- 
cussed matters relating to washing and bleaching pro- 
cesses, and at the demonstration made later under his 
•observation. The author has coordinated this material, 
sometimes quoting Mr. Rawnsley, at other points giving 
■only the gist of his statement as a part of the description. 
The washroom and the arrangements for hot and cold 
water as required, and for drying the birds, are shown in 
accompanying illustrations and described in the legends 
relating to them. 

For the washing three ordinary metal washtubs, 24 inches in 
•diameter at the top, 20 inches in diameter at the bottom and 10 inches 
■deep, are used. Two of these are placed on a strongly built wooden 
"bench, 5 feet long, 28 inches wide, and 28 inches high. The third 
tub is placed on a backless wooden chair at -the end of the bench 
farthest from the suds tub. 

The men prepared for work by rolling up their sleeves and put- 
ting on rubber boots and rubber aprons. 

"The temperature of the room should be 65 to 70 degrees," said 
Mr. Rawnsley, continuing — 

"We prefer cistern water in all three tubs, but if our supply of 
•cistern water is low, we can use city water for the rinsing, but much 
prefer cistern water for soaking and shaping. If we have enough soft 
water for two tubs, but not the third, then we use city water in tub 
No. 2 — the one used for rinsing off soap after birds have been under 
faucet for the same purpose." 

They filled all three tubs at the start, one with hot water — as 
hot as they could bear their hands in; the next with water about ten 
■degrees colder and the' third with water another ten degrees colder. 
A good-sized hand sponge was tossed into each of the rinsing tubs, 
ready for use later. 

In tub No. 1 nine gallons of water were poured. Into this a 
half pound of Lux flake soap was stirred thoroughly, then mixed and 
worked with the hand until the foam on the water was half a foot 
thick or more. "Make lather to beat the band,' is our rule at this 




point, 



id Mr. Rav 



ater — and the rest 
be washed more quickly 
' 'Now, ' ' said Mr. 
"Stai 



sley. The result was six 
suds. Ivory soap w 
with Lux.- 

Rawnsley. suiting the action to the word, 
rer and thoroughly soak him, working the 



soapy water into all the feathers from; head to shanks, taking pains 
not to muss the feathers undulv. Then wash the surface with an or- 
dinary soft, but moderately stiff bristle hand brush, the kind 2x5 
inches in size used for washing dishes, cleaning kitchen sinks, etc. 
Wash carefully the entire surface, always stroking With the Feathers, 



at tin 



holding i 




do. 



untrolling the bird, 



othe hi: 



The war 



the 



DRY SPONGING BEFORE PUTTING IN DRYING OABI 



Both men at the start worked 
same bird, one working the suds all over and 
through the feathers with his hands, while the 
other used the brush on the hard wing and 
tail feathers, brushing always witli the feath- 

Next the bird was placed on one side on 
a board 12x30 inches in size, containing 20 
to 30 one-inch holes for drainage. The head 
of the fowl at all times was kept out of wa- 
ter but no special pains were taken to keep 
soap out of the eyes, and the birds did not 
seem to mind it. One of the two men would 
hold the bird on the board, using the legs or 
a wing for the purpose, while the other would 
scrub with a hand brush, the other using his 
free hand for the same purpose. All wash- 
ing and scrubbing was done from the head 
downward, and from the quill of the feather 
outward. A hand would be spread under the 
tail feathers and these feathers soaped and 
scrubbed one at a time while held in this 
position. Sickles also were held up against 
nd washed separately. Tail feath- 
ashed with head of bird held away 
nan who did it. Birds stood pa- 
he warm water, soaked to the skin, 
to get out, even when the 
' for a half minute or more 
Breast and body feathers 
lifted up and worked into in such man- 
ner that the soap got thoroughly through 
them. The fingers were used to comb these 
feathers and rub out carefully all dirt or 
stain. Said Mr. Rawnsley: 

"We must get the suds well up into all 
the feathers in every section, including breast, 
hackle, etc. This is what we call the soaping 
process and it must be done very thoroughly: 



he hand 



nd did not 
len stepped 

purpos 



132 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



You can see that the hirds like it, because they do not make any 
fuss. How Jong does it take to wash a bird properly ? Three to six 
minutes in the case of sales birds. In the case of birds for exhibition, 
.we of course take more time and still more pains — simply go the 
limit to have them in the pink of condition." 

Much of the lime (in this demonstration) the brushes were used, 
rather than the hand and fingers — the effort being to reach and scrub 
every feather, especially all large feathers. While a bird is on the 
board one man holds the legs, as a rule — still washing the sides and 
under wings, etc., with the other hand, first one side and then the 
other. At this point a cake of Ivory soap comes into play. The 
brush js rubbed on the soap and then the bird is scrubbed quickly all 
over with this brush. They also carefully scrub the feet and wash 




BIRDS IN THE RAWNSLEY DRYER — CURTAINS UP 



feathers everywhere. Wherever they go 
spread on one hand and then scrubbed 



the thighs, getting intc 
the feathers are lifted 
carefully — thoroughly. 

After the soaking, soaping and scrubbing (on board, etc.) have 
been painstakingly done, the suds are wiped off and stripped off by 
hand and are thrown back into the suds tub. Wings and tail are 
squeezed by hand to get out the soap, then the bird is put under the 
two faucets, first under the partly warmed water, next under the cold 
■water faucet. Water is turned on full for about a minute and rapid- 
ly carries away the soapy water, while the man holding the bird 
strokes and squeezes the plumage to get out all the soap he can. 
Wings are held open, tail is quickly spread, feathers elsewhere are 
lifted to get out quickly all the soapy water possible. Said Mr. 
Rawnsley : 

"This cold water treatment prevents the 
birds taking cold. By our method they nev- 
er catch cold. Cannot recall when we ever 
had trouble of that kind. Yes, one person 
can wash birds satisfactorily, but two get on 
much faster — more than twice as fast. 

' 'Head, legs and toes are thoroughly 
washed in the first water, using soap and 
brush. No soapy wat 



perch in the drying cabinet and curtains buttoned down, leaving 
him in the dark. Said Mr. Rawnsley: 

"In tub No. 3 use about as much bluing as an experienced wash- 
er woman would for white clothes. In dry sponging him, I get off all 
the water I can, to avoid dripping in the dryer and so the bird will 
dry off that much sooner. In dry sponging, take pains to straighten 
out the feathers nicely and in natural position." 

Just before birds were placed in dryer, each was held by the 
feet, head downward at arm's length and allowed to flop its wings 
several times. Said Mr. Rawnsley: 

"Hold them out this way at arm's length and let them flop 
their wings to throw off the water and help circulate the blood. It 
works like a charm. 

"The aim is to dry the feathers as much 
as we can before placing birds in the drying 
cabinet. We do not use a cloth of any kind 
to get off the soap or water, because of dan- 
ger of roughing the feathers. Be extra care- 
ful to have all feathers in their natural posi- 
tion when the bird is placed in the cabinet. 
For example, open the wings and dry sponge 
each section and part carefully, then feathers 
will not get out of shape nor will the web 
mat or roll up. The moisture pans in the 
irying cabinet take care 1 of that, and it is re- 
markable how nicely the feathers, small and 
large, fluff out during the drying process in 
this cabinet. 

During the soaping and rinsing process, 
[he feathers on these birds look like long nar- 
row ribbons. In tub No. 3, the water with 
bluing in it was worked well into the feathers 
thus to "whiten them thoroughly," as Mr. 
Rawnsley expressed it. No peroxide is used 
on sales birds shipped for breeding purposes. 
In cases where peroxide is employed they use 
"just a little" after taking the bird out of 
the bluing water. It is then wiped over the 
surface and in other sections, using absorbent 
cotton for the purpose. Said Mr. Rawnsley: 
* 'Yes, I believe this takes out some of 
the yellowish tinge found in white plumage 
at certain seasons of the year and due to the 
oil in the feathers, or to their green condi- 
tion, so to speak, but I know positively that 
peroxide will not remove brassiness, and I'll 
say further that I do not know of any pro- 
cess, chemical or otherwise, that will remove 
brassiness from the plumage to an extent 
that is self-evident. 

"From what I've heard, one would judge 
that some people must stand their yellow 
birds in peroxide up to their eyes, in an ef- 
fort to take off the brassiness, but it will not 
work, except to seriously damage the feath- 
ers. The one right and profitable way to get 
rid of brassiness in white-plumaged, Standard fowl is to Dreed it out 
of them by careful, persistent selection and elimination, both as to 
the males and females of a strain." 

Continuing Mr. Rawnsley said: "There is one speciallv impor- 
tant thins about this washing process: TO DO IT QUICKLY 1 The 
longer a bird is wet to the skin the worse it may be for him. Clare 
and I can average one sales bird to every three minutes, but we 
should use about five minutes to each bird. We have offered to bet 
any two men in the United States that we can beat the 
white fowl. For show birds we take fifteen minutes e 
"All birds while being washed are very quiet. Tl 



is to 

if Hi 



ak the -feathe 
ell 



iked. 



•-II, 



the 



af b: 



that, 
take 
fore 

while 



In washing birds for exhibition v 
ore pains with the feet and legs. B> 
ashing the bird we stand it for quite 
n warm water in a tin pail placed i 
>w shipping coop that is covered ovt 
ide dark. This thoroughly snaks an 
the dirt and grime on the legs an 
rid the scrubbing we give them in tl 
them thoroughly except if 
d around the scales. Th 
with a nail file, just as 



loos. 

toes, 

first water clean; 
the dirt under a 
we remove later 
manicurist does.' 
After the c 
are pi 



dd 



ater shower the birds 
I in tub No. 2 for a thorough rins- 
bird stands in the water while the 
man holding it goes rapidly over it in ev- 
ery section to finish the rinsing process. 
Meantime the other man has started another 
bird in tub No. 1. 

From tub No. 2, the bird goes to tub No. 
3, in which a small amount of bluing has been 
mixed thoroughly. Again clean water is 
worked quickly over and through the bird's 
plumage, then is carefully squeezed out of the 
feathers. Next he is lifted out to stand on 
the drain board. Here water is again pressed 
out of the plumage — all possible — and he is 
dry sponged by the use of a hand sponge 
which is frequently squeezed back into the 
tub — tub No. 3. All water that could be re- 
moved from the plumage in n minute or sn 
was taken out, then the bird was placed on a 




THE RAWNSLEY DRYER WITH ONE CURTAIN UP AND ONE DOWN 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



''Have everything handy and ready before you begin washing, 
then while one man rinses, the other will soap and soak another bird 
and have him ready for the board — to be placed on his side and scrub- 
bed that way by both men. You just saw us wash a big, vigorous 
cock bird and could notice how docile he was. Resting here on the 
drain board on one side, a man can hold him by the wing without 
any trouble and wash him freely with the other hand. 

"In the dryer always aim to place a female between two males 
to prevent scrapping. The better plan is to leave the birds in the 
dryer all night, though we can wash sales birds in the morning be- 
tween eight and nine o'clock and remove them at 5:30 that after- 
noon. The birds in the dryer will not fight, so long as the curtain 
is kept down ; also as long as they remain wet they do not feel like 
scrapping. 

"For this size cabinet twelve to fifteen males or eighteen to 
twenty females of the White Orpington variety will dry satisfactorily, 
but we must not put too many birds in the dryer or they will 'sweat.' 
There needs to be a quite free circulation of air among and between 
the birds. However, they must not dry quickly, or this will result in 
curled feathers; also this has a tendency to make the feathers brittle, 
if the same birds are washed several times the same season and dry too 
quickly. 

"The use of this drying cabinet is a wonderful time saver. For 
example, if we had sixteen to eighteen birds to dry in as many single 
coops it would be some job. Furthermore, where birds are allowed 
to dry on straw, as in separate coops, they will muss and soil the 
breast feathers. Here in the drying cabinet they are on perches and 
keep clean all the time. We use fourteen quarts of warm water in 
each of the three large shallow pans. Sand could be used but it is no 
better than water, and as it gets soiled its use makes unnecessary ex- 
tra work. 

"We keep the temperature in the cabinet at about ninety degrees 
while the birds are enclosed. Care should be taken not to have the in- 
terior too hot when cabinet is filled with birds. Top frame of cabinet, 
which is covered with heavy felt or canvas is removable and there- 
fore can be used for ventilation by propping it up an inch or two. 
The curtain buttons down both sides and across the bottom, so that 
inmates of cabinet can not get out. Interior of cabinet is thus kept 
dark so that the birds are contented and do not move about — do not 
crowd or fight. 

"It takes the best part of the day and night to dry the birds 
properly. This depends partly on heat of the room in which cabinet 
is located. In warmer weather the birds can be dried sufficiently in 
on© day, putting them in the cabinet before ten a. m. and removing 
them at six or seven o'clock that afternoon, but I prefer to dry them 
slowly, taking all night to it. 

"Early in the morning we take them from the dryer and you 
will be surprised how dry they are, and how clean and bright their 
plumage is. Again we hold the birds heads downward and let them 
flap their wings, especially the male birds. They dry out last under 
the wings and this flapping process helps to arrange all the feathers 
in natural position. Next we take them upstairs to the conditioning 
room and place them in coops on clean straw, ready for shipment 
later on. After birds are put in coops upstairs they preen their 
feathers, straightening them out and putting them in natural shape. 

"After the birds are dried, one can improve the surface some- 
what, as I believe, by using a silk handkerchief, but in the case of 
sales birds, simply put the males down on the floor where they can 
flap their wings and crow a time or two, and they will be ready to 
ship. Another plan, when in a hurry — meaning with sales birds — is 
to use a cyclone' hair dryer, the kind that is used commonly in bar- 
ber shops." Use this cyclone dryer after birds have been in the cabi- 
net and are nearly dry, just to hurry them along. With this cyclone 
dryer raise the wings and get underneath. That section is the last 
to dry out well in the cabinet. This cyclone hair dryer will blow 
up the body feathers and help dry them quickly. In five to seven 
minutes a bird from the dryer will be completely dry, with the 
feathers fluffed up and back in natural condition. If desired, finish 
off the job by using a piece of soft silk, like a silk. handkerchief, to 
put on a satiny finish. 

"Yes, this machine could be run by coal oil if desired. Just heat 
the water to the temperature necessary to give ninety degrees in the 
cabinet and hold it." 

CONSTRUCTION OF RAWNSLEY DRYER 

This dryer, or cabinet, when erected ready for use, stands 5 feet 
6 inches high, is 6 feet wide and 3 inches deep. 

Woodwork of cabinet is built in panels and frames, is held 
together with about a dozen good-sized screws and can be set up or 
taken down in short time. 

Legs, where they extend below body of cabinet are 22 inches in 
length. Front legs are each made of two pieces of 1x3% inch sound 
pine, one piece in each case forming part of front panel of cabinet 
and the other piece part of the end frame. When cabinet is erected 
the two pieces, where they join and lap, are screwed tightly together, 
making a substantial support. These front legs extend two inches 
above the body of the cabinet for ornamental effect. Back legs are 
built the same way except that they do not project above top of 
cabinet. 

Front frame, including the two strips that help form the^ front 
legs, is made of 1x3% inch sound pine, with a 1x3 inch strip in the 
middle, which divides the large open front into two squares, each 
31^x31% inches in size. Covering each of these square openings a 
curtain of extra-heavv canvas or ducking is used that is attached 
snugly to the top piece of the frame or panel and is supplied along the 
edges with metal-bound eyeholes for buttoning the curtain to the- oth- 
er three sides of the frame, including the bottom strip. Fasteners on 
the frame match the eye-holes for this purpose. 

Attached to the bottom rail of the front frame by means of two 
short-butt hinges is a 2 % inch x 5% foot one-inch strip that is 
used as a door for removing three shallow water pans that are located 
in bottom of cabinet. This door opens upward and stays in place 
when opened. .«#.». o • t 

Back and both ends of cabinet are made of % inch x 6 men 
tongued-and L grooved pine, built in panel form so each is handled m 
one piece to set up or take down. . 

Cabinet has removable frame top or cover, made of 1x3 inch 
strips with middle crosspiece covered with canvas cloth of good thick- 
ness, but not as heavy as the front curtain. Top frame rests on 
inside cleats, so it can be raised two or three inches in front for added 
circulation of air. 



In both end walls of cabinet, about 2 inches from the top (or 
ceiling of cabinet) are ten 1% inch round holes, located on a line 
and three inches apart for constant air circulation. 

There is no floor to the cabinet. In place of a floor or bottom, 
a frame that duplicates the top or cover frame is fitted in place, on 
which rests the shallow tin pans, three in number, each 21x36 inches 
in size and Wz inches deep. 

Inside the cabinet, close above the pans and resting on 1x2 inch 
cleats at each end, is an ordinary coil of six 1-inch iron pipes through 
which hot water from a near-by boiler circulates for heating and dry- 
ing purposes. Pipes are five inches apart; front pipe is six inches 
from face of cabinet and rear pipe six inches from back of cabinet. 
Flow pipe enters cabinet near front and return pipe goes back to 
heater from rear of cabinet at same end. Flow pipe enters at point 
3 inches higher than point at which return pipe goes back to hot wa- 
ter boiler. 

Immediately above these pipes and resting on them is another 
frame, practically 3x6 feet in size and removable, made of 1x3 inch 
material, to which is attached 1-inch poultry netting. Frame has 
three crosspieces and is of sufficient strength to support fowls if any 
are crowded off the roosts, thus preventing them getting on the hot 
pipes. 

In cabinet, extending lengthwise are two 1x4 inch x 6 foot sub- 
stantial removable perches located 12 inches above the pipes, the 
front perch being 13 inches from the front line of the cabinet and the 
other one 12 inches farther back, which brings it 13 inches from the 
rear wall. The 1x4 inch top perch is nailed T-fashion to the edge of a 
supporting 1x3 inch strip of equal length, which makes the perch 
rigid. 

This drying cabinet can be built any size, as regards length or 
number of compartments. The one here described holds comfortably 
twelve to fifteen male birds or eighteen to twenty females of the 
White Orpington breed, preferably the smaller number in each case. 

Bleaching White Birds 

Some of the foregoing statements of methods of 
washing fowls have referred to the matter of bleaching. 
One in particular gave briefly the method of using per- 
oxide of hydrogen. The use of "chemicals" in washing 
birds to increase their whiteness may be either after the 
washing or in the washing. Mr. E. B. Rogers, in the 
"American Poultry World," made this statement: 

"I have experimented with everything I have ever 
heard of and have men in my employ who are familiar 
with bleaching wool, silk and cotton fabrics, who strip 
these goods of their original color for dyeing and who 
have assisted me in the experiment with no result as to 
bleaching. Feathers showing brass where put through 
numerous tests when dried out would show a shade or two 
lighter, in fact a great deal worse and more prominent than 
originally. I consider the washing of white birds an art, 
and one that few ever take the time and pains to learn. I 
have found the following method very satisfactory: 

"After I have selected birds I want to condition for 
the showroom, I wash them thoroughly with a soap prepa- 
ration I make by chipping three bars of Life Buoy soap 
(carbolic acid soap), two bars of Ivory soap, boiled in 
two gallons of soft water. Dissolve a tablespoonful of 
chloride of lime in a quart of boiling water, and add a 
tablespoonful of oxalic acid and one ounce of good am- 
monia. Stir the latter preparation through the soap prep- 
aration after it has been cooled and continue to stir so 
as to mix thoroughly, until the soap is ropey. Set in a cool 
place and when cool it will be a stiff jelly. 

"In washing I immerse the bird in water that is as 
warm as the bird can stand and afterward work this prep- 
aration all through the feathers until every particle of 
dirt is loosened, then rinse the bird through at least three 
waters, and at last blue through a bluing water made of 
indigo bluing sufficiently strong to make the bird good and 
blue. After this process the birds are put back in their 
conditioning coops for a week or ten days, or until a day 
or two previous to the time they are to be sent to the 
show, when they are again washed in the same manner 
without using the bluing. 

"After the birds are almost dry, I work all of the corn- 
starch that their feathers will hold through the fluff, tail and 
wing feathers. I do not think the starch has anything to do 
with whitening the bird, but it does aid in the drying and 
causes the fiber of the feathers to open up more readily." 



134 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



Mr. Jos. Coleman contributed the following compre- 
hensive statement in regard to both modes of bleaching 
to the same paper: 

"Technically, using bluing is just as much of a sin, if 
sin it may be, as adopting a more complicated method 
of procedure — that is, whitening or bleaching. *** The 




EFFECT OF EXCESS OF PEROXIDE 
Arrow points to a spot where feathers are destroyed to the skin 

peroxide process in the hands of some is of little effect. 
The ordinary method of simply sponging the bird with 
peroxide of hydrogen after washing, in our hands, has met 
with little success. A far better way is to use one part 
of strong ammonia and three of peroxide. After the fowl 
has passed through the last water, and the towels used 
have absorbed most of the water in the plumage (in other 
words, while the feathers are yet damp but not wet), 
quickly unite the peroxide and ammonia, rapidly sponge 
the plumage with this mixture, and as speedily as possible 
wrap the fowl in oiled silk, leaving only the head and 
shanks exposed. Hold the fowl in this manner for about 
three minutes. Practice will readily determine the length 
of time. Better experiment on a couple of culls in order 
to get your hand in. The idea of using oiled silk is to 
confine the gases generated by the union of the two chem- 
icals — that is what causes the bleaching. If the washing 
is carried on in a hot room, and it should be, the Chinese 
method of plunging clothes into clear, cold water may be 
adopted with the fowls. This has the tendency of whiten- 
ing and should be done the last thing before drying the 
birds. *** 

"Chloride of lime. Horrors. Now chloride of lime is 
practically harmless and will not cause the plumage to 
come out if used in the proper way. Those who have 
met with disaster using this chemical were not next to 
the 'know how.' First take one tablespoonful of chloride 
of lime, two tablespoonfuls of oxalic acid crystals, and 
mix these ingredients thoroughly together, then put this 
mixture into a gallon of hot soft water. Stir well. Then 
shave up three large cakes of Ivory soap and add slowly, 
stirring all the while. You will now have a jelly to be used 
as any other soap in washing your fowls. Put in quart 
cans if you do not care to use all at one time. The chlo- 
ride of lime is so assembled in this mixture that it can 
hardly be harmful in any manner whatever. If this meth- 
od is followed use the bluing in the last rinse water in 
the usual manner. **** If a fowl is thoroughly blued 
by dipping in bluing water six to eight weeks before the 
time of exhibition, the plumage will wash out nice and 
white, and the fowl may be allowed to run at large dur- 



ing this time. If the bird is made as blue as an Andalu- 
sian the sun will have no effect on the plumage. Brass- 
iness in fowls is only the pigment of the feather being 
scorched by the rays of the sun. Did you ever notice a 
hen that has wallowed in coal soot and is almost as. 
black as night? Wash this same hen and she will be your 
whitest bird. Why? Simply because the sun had no 
effect on black. The plumage has not been burned." 

The final clause in the foregoing statement I have 
quoted as made; but it is desirable to call attention to the 
fact obvious to one acquainted with all circumstances 
relating to it that Mr. Coleman's meaning was that black 
foreign matter on the plumage protected the pigment in it 
from the action of the sun. As a successful breeder and 
exhibitor of black fowls Mr. Coleman certainly knew 
that the sun affected pigment in their plumage. Many 
instances could be cited giving evidence of the efficacy 
of strong bluing and repeated washing after exposure of 
the blued birds to sun and weather for various periods. 
The essential difference between the use of bluing and the 
use of peroxide and chloride combinations is not in the 
result sought but in the different character of the undesired 
effects incident to the processes, and in the fact that bluing 
adds color to the plumage and so must always be used 
with the greatest caution. To put it another way, bluing; 
spoils color before it destroys fabric, while the action of 
an excess of the other things is to destroy the fabric. 

Bleaching with peroxide is always accompanied with 
some risk of damaging the feathers when enough peroxide 
is used to be really effective. Even those experienced in 
its use sometimes get too much on, or get too much in 
some places with the result that the web of the feather, 
and sometimes even the quills of small feathers, will be 
destroyed, though in the latter case, if not in both, it 
would appear that repeated vigorous rubbing of the feath- 
ers may have contributed to the breaking off of quills 
at the skin. The fact that it does not immediately damage 
the feathers to an extent preventing exhibiting the bird 
does not necessarily show that it has not produced injuri- 
ous results. Even ordinary washing makes feathers after- 
wards more easily soiled and less weatherproof, and I 
have often seen birds that at a show displayed no bad 
effects of bleaching showing a great deal of damage to 
the web a few weeks or months later. 

Detecting Bleaching — It is often stated that after 
washing the natural white bird cannot be distinguished 
from the bleached bird. The correct statement of the case 
is that the distinction cannot be made readily and with 
positive certainty 
for all cases. An 
expert might not 
be able to say on 
the inspection of 
a single speci- 
men, or on com- 
parison of a very 
small number of 
specimens, wheth- 
er a particular 
string of birds 
has been bleach- 
ed or simply 
washed; but a 
number of men 
who handle many- 
large classes of 
white birds assert 




SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



135 




PINCHED MAIN TAIL 
Before fixing by bending the feathers 

that wherever pinfeathers or partly grown feathers are found 
in a bird their condition is thoroughly dependable evidence 
of the nature of the treatment that has been applied to the 
plumage. Even in the whitest naturally white bird feathers 
in course of growth are creamy, so if it is found that imma- 
ture feathers and even new. pinfeathers are white it is ac- 
cepted as evident that the birds have been bleached. 

I have seen white birds on exhibition with pinfeathers 
and short new feathers absolutely devoid of oil and pre- 
senting a quite unnatural appearance. One of the breeders 
of White Wyandottes who discontinued showing because 
he was not willing 
to bleach at all 
:alled my attention 
to this some years 
ago, at a time when 
the Standard con- 
tained the provision 
that: "The natural 
white bird shall not 
be handicapped by 
the apparently 
bleached one, and 
other things being 
equal, the natural 
white bird shall 
win." It is a singu- 
lar thing that 
though a very con- 
siderable number 

of breeders of white varieties who were opposed to bleach- 
ing took the position that such evidence as this, and oth- 
er effects on plumage, made it entirely possible to deter- 
mine beyond reasonable doubt in a large proportion 
of cases the use of "chemicals" in bleaching; the next 
edition of the Standard dropped this provision and sub- 
stituted for it this remarkable statement: "Bleaching 
by means of chemicals is such a harmful practice that 
where it is proven by other evidence than the condition of 
the specimen or specimens, such bleached specimen or 
specimens shall be considered faked and disqualified." 

How this managed to get into the Standard I have not 
been able to learn definitely, but knowing something of 
the possibility of introducing things into it when under 
consideration in a committee or convention that would 
not be accepted if the members had them before their eyes 
in black and white, I surmise that someone interested in 
bleached birds managed to put it through. The damage 




METHOD OF BENDING TAIL FEATHERS 
The bend is made close to the skin 



done, however, is more apparent than real, for the pre- 
sent provision is a dead letter. No judge hesitates to dis- 
qualify a pen of birds that he finds affected by bleaches 
to a degree that shows beyond doubt in the mind of any 
one, and beyond dispute that the birds have been bleached. 
An exhibitor who would rely upon the letter of the Stand- 
ard in such a case and, if the question came up after- 
ward, would attempt to use it as a defense would be in a 
peculiar predicament. 

Washing Colored Fowls 

In washing colored fowls the general procedure is the 
same as in washing white birds but no bleaches are used, 
and the possible effects of soaps and also of too hot 
water upon colors have to be considered. The washing 
of colored fowls has not had attention enough yet to bring 
out much definite information upon any of the difficulties 
peculiar to it. Ordinary washing is said to have the effect 
in some cases of making light buffs slightly deeper in col- 
or. From the information given by Wright and cited in 
connection with the statement a little farther on in regard 
to dyeing buff and red colors, it would appear to be a 
question in such case whether the change of color ob- 
served was not due to the particular kind of soap 
used. An exhibitor of buff birds once told me that he 
had spoiled a lot of birds in preparation for showing by 
washing them as the color seemed to run, leaving the 
birds blotchy in appearance. In making inquiries that 
might throw some light upon such a case among other 
exhibitors at that show I happened to be talking with an 
exhibitor of pigeons, who in early life exhibited poultry 
also, but has for many years given his attention entirely to 
pigeons. He informed me that on one occasion when he 
washed some red pigeons in very warm water the color 
"ran" and completely spoiled the appearance of the birds. 

While the practice of washing white birds was in this 
country limited almost entirely to Cochins, it was the 
general custom to wash, and strongly blue, Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks. The advantage of the process was espe- 
cially in the bluing, for in those days the color was lighter 
and the barring much wider than now, and the idea was 
to make them look as blue as possible. Sometimes it was 
overdone, but the taste of that time preferred an unnatural 
blue, especially in the smaller shows. Some reported wash- 
ing with strong soap blurred the colors. 

Exhibitors of some of the crested breeds wash the 
crest and sponge off the. rest of the plumage. Very large 
crests are sometimes "done up" on the head to keep them 
out of the eyes of the birds, but the practice is attended 




TAIL WITH HALF OF THE FEATHERS BENT 
The other half in natural position 



136 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



with some danger because if the feathers get wet and do 
not dry out readily they may rot. 

Fluffing and Bending Feathers 
As all processes of this nature are most readily per- 
formed on newly washed birds and are therefore most 
in vogue among exhibitors of white varieties this seems 
the most appropriate point to introduce them. A great 




CURLING FEATHERS 

Beside bending the tail feathers to change the profile outline, the 

expert curls them to give the desired lateral spread. Above 

is the position of the fingers to make the feather curve in. 

difference in the appearance of the newly washed bird can 
be made by slight manipulation of the feathers during the 
final stages of the drying process. They naturally will tend 
to stand out a little more after the operation of working 
down to the skin, first to soap them thoroughly and then 
to remove the soap. They can be brought back to their 
normal position and made lie smooth and close by strok- 
ing them down as they finish drying; or by systematically 
increasing the fluffing the bird may be made very fluffy. 
Like the human hair, the smaller and more flexible quills 
of the feathers can have their directions somewhat changed 
while damp, and (drying in the new position) will hold it 
for some time — from a few days where the bending is pro- 
duced with little force to about two weeks where the feath- 
er is bent to an extent possible only with the application 
of considerable force and with some damage to the quill. 

Some exhibitors do ordinary fluffing with their hands, 
simply keeping the feathers slightly fluffed out by gently 
brushing the tips of the feathers the wrong way. Where 
it is desired to make the feathers stand out more, the 
work is done more systematically and with more at- 
tention to giving a decided bend to the feather, by pressing 
back a few feathers at a time and with a fan or small 
bellows assisting the drying as they are in that extreme 
position. The feathers are forced back farther than it 
is desired they should remain and in the partial recovery 
of their position they come about to the desired angle. 
This is about as far as the general fluffing process usually 
goes, though Wright relates an instance of a certain ex- 
hibitor in England, long ago, who was accustomed to ex- 
hibit some wonderfully fluffed birds in which investi- 
gation showed that the feathers had been bent twice, once 
close to the skin and again farther out, giving the fluffing 
a peculiar character. It was supposed that hours were 
spent on each bird — each feather being twice bent sep- 
arately. Quite possibly that was the case, but taking the 
description of what was done as I understand it, I venture 
to say that there are a number of men in America today, 
so expert in the manipulation of the back and saddle 
feathers of males to give the bird apparent breadth and 
fullness in those parts, that they could accomplish re- 



markable results fluffing the feathers of a Cochin in 
handfuls in very much less than an hour. 

The flexibility of the quills of feathers admits of the 
building up and filling out of backs and saddles that are 
narrow and pinched, and that show too sharp angles at 
the tail, and also of very extensive manipulation of the 
angle of the tail, and of its spread — both perpendicular 
and lateral. The accompanying series of illustrations 
shows the principal details of the method graphically, 
and the legend under each explains it especially. It is 
therefore necessary to say here in general only that in 
building up a saddle or cushion the feathers are bent so 
close to the body that the bend in the quills is not per- 
ceptible; and that in giving a tail the desired angle and 
spread they are bent at the root or curled slightly their 
entire length, or both, as the case may demand, and when 
the job is done with skill and care some very consid- 
erable faults of shape will be concealed and the trick is 
not readily detected. 

It should be said further, however, that a successful job 
of this kind depends in the first place upon the operator 
having a very definite idea of the new shape he is going 
to give the bird, and of the amount of manipulation at 
each and every point that will be required to give him 
the result he is after. It is something like "lightning" 
sketching, or rather modeling. A bungling job of this 
kind makes a specimen look much worse than before; 
hence the exhibitor who wishes to fix in this way any 
fowls that can thereby be improved for exhibition would 
do well to make a careful study of the art, and to practice 
diligently on birds not for exhibition before trying his 
hand on any he intends to show. 

The most conspicuous results of building up saddles 
and bending tails are seen in breeds of the Mediterranean 
class, but the practice extends to all. The development 
of rare skill in it is of comparatively modern date, though 
the practice as applied to tails goes back to the early 
days of the fancy. When not too crudely done this form of 
faking is not regarded by exhibitors generally as pecul- 
iarly heinous for it savors very much of the practice of 
teaching birds that are naturally of indifferent type to 
pose to show good type. I have to confess for myself 
that the good jobs in this line that are so common now- 
adays seem to me greatly to be preferred to what used 




to be done when Leghorn tails roughly bent dry until the 
quills cracked could be found on winners in leading shows. 
Feather bending as practiced in various forms is, as a 
rule, "for exhibition only." As has been already stated 
the feathers will come back to their natural position, if 
not actually broken, in about two weeks. 



SPECIAL FITTING OF BIRDS FOR EXHIBITION 



137 



Splicing Feathers 
The temptation to splice feathers arises from the ease 
with which it can be done in a manner that will pass super- 
ficial inspection, and also from the possibility in some 
cases of makng a half-plausible excuse for it. In fact, I 
have known people who never exhibited poultry, and 
perhaps would not be regarded as fanciers (certainly were 
not so in the sense of taking any interest in breeding 
to definite pattern and type), splice the broken sickle of 
a pet mongrel rooster because they did not like the un- 




CURLING A SICKLE FEATHER 

symmetrical appearance of the tail with a large part of 
one sickle gone. In the case of an exhibition bird there 
is always the possibility of the substitute feather being 
one of his own from an earlier coat of feathers. But in 
most cases appearing in the showroom the natural pre- 
sumption is that a faulty sickle on an otherwise good bird 
has been replaced with a good one from a generally in- 
ferior specimen. 

Two methods of splicing are used. One is to cut the 
broken feather off as close as possible to the root, and 
insert the new feather in the stub, using glue to make 
it adhere. This does not show the splice as plainly as 
the other, though it is easily seen when attention is direct- 
ed to it. The other is to leave an inch to perhaps an inch 
and a half of the quill beyond the skin and the quills are 
trimmed to make them fit as in splice-grafting and bound 
tightly together with thread the color of the feather. The 
part put on is a little surer to stay when this is done, and 
in a bird with abundant tail coverts the splice would be well 
concealed and the feather might not be noticed by one who 
was not examining the bird critically. But unless it is 
very nicely adjusted an observant poultry breeder or 
judge looking at the bird would quickly note something 
wrong with that feather; and the same thing would happen 
if it did not match the rest of the tail in color. 

The possibility of splicing is limited to large stiff 
feathers — as tail and flight feathers. Detection of splic- 
ing in the latter is so certain that it is probably never, 
tried. Detection of tail splicing is so likely that exhibitors 
generally never so much as consider doing it. 
Giving Luster to Feathers 

Birds differ greatly in their natural luster, and their 
luster is also influenced by their diet. In all cases luster 
on the surface can be increased, and where the natural 
luster is good it can be made very fine, by rubbing, brush- 
ing or grooming the surface with a soft cloth or with the 



palm of the hand. Where the color is dull or flat look- 
ing it may be either because the feathers lack oil or be- 
cause they are soiled. The treatment required to give 
luster and gloss will depend on the circumstances. If 
the feathers, though clean, lack luster, the addition of oil 
may give this luster, and the oil supplied by rubbing with 
the palm of the hand may be sufficient. If it does not 
appear so the palm of the hand may be made slightly oily 
with vaseline, coconut oil, sweet oil, or in fact any oil 
that is applied to the skin, and rubbing with the hand will 
then produce the desired gloss. The point is to add the 
oil to the feathers in very small amounts, so that no more 
will be applied anywhere than the feather will immediately 
absorb, and to have it evenly applied that the luster may 
be uniform. A cloth that is uniformly and very slightly 
oily may serve the same purpose, but minimum application 
of oil to plumage can be made better with the bare palm 
as the sense of touch keeps one constantly aware of the 
degree of oiliness. 

Where the plumage is naturally lustrous but more or 
less soiled, the effect of rubbing is — in part at least — to 
show the natural luster by removing the dirt. In such 
cases the use of a little alcohol, benzine, gasoline, am- 
monia, or like material, on a cloth used in rubbing helps 
to clean the surface and the continued rubbing adds to 
the luster. Where there is any dust in the plumage of a 
very dark bird (especially of a black one), slapping the 
surface lightly with the flat of the hand as the rubbing 
proceeds will bring it out. 

The rubbing that gives high luster, like all the opera- 
tions which contribute highly finished results, is not a 
perfunctory process but very thorough and long con- 
tinued. Mr. J. C. Punderford when exhibiting Buff Leg- 
horns contributed an article on the conditioning of fowls 
to the "Reliable Poultry Journal" in which he stated that 
the high luster on his birds was secured by rubbing each 
bird well with a silk handkerchief for half an hour daily 
for a week or more before the. show. To get the full value 
of such work the rubbing must of course be continued 




BUILDING A SADDLE BY BENDING THE FEATHERS 

after the birds arrive at the show and special attention 
given to the final grooming just before the birds are 
judged. Many exhibitors postpone rubbing until just be- 
fore judging. While that puts the birds in better con- 
dition than they were, it does not — except in cases where 
the natural sheen is uncommonly good — put them where 
they would have been if well groomed during conditioning. 



138 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



Rubbing to make or improve luster applies only to 
rather hard-finished plumage. To rub where looseness 
and fluffiness is desired may tend to spoil those effects. 
That depends upon the structure of the bird — on how 
much its apparent type is due to the quantity and texture of 
feathers. Thus a Cochin or an Orpington male that has a 
broad back, nicely rounding to the sides, and a full and 
comparatively firm saddle can stand the rubbing that will 
bring the gloss out on the back, while a narrower bird 
that needs all the advantage fluffing and building out the 
saddle can give it cannot. 

Where rubbing is inadvisable, the best way to bring 
out luster on black plumage is by keeping the birds in 
darkened pens for a week or so before showing. Wright 
says this was the method used by the most successful 
exhibitors of Black Spanish in England in the palmy days 
of that breed. The birds were confined in the dark in the 
first instance to secure purity of color of the white face. 
It was found that black luster was also improved. The 
pens were made about seven feet long by four feet wide, 
and boarded up four or five feet from the floor, the parti- 
tion above that being of wire netting to provide thorough 
ventilation. Small windows high up in the outer walls ad- 
mitted just enough light for the birds to see to eat and 
drink and fly to roost. 

Purple Barring in Black Plumage — This may be in 
whole or in part prevented by good feeding and care, and 
by not allowing the bird to be exposed too much to the 
weather. Where it exists it may be more or less success- 
fully concealed by one of the following methods: , Ap- 
plying a black stain or dye of graphite, lamp black or ink 
to the feathers. It is said that this method conceals the 
barring so that only very close inspection will reveal it. 
The other method, which it is claimed cannot be detected, 
is to rub the birds well, as in rubbing to give luster, with 
a mixture of equal parts of suet and lard, melted together, 
in which a little sulphur is mixed while hot. The method 
of applying is to put a little on the palms of the hands 
and rub the plumage until the bars are no longer visible. 

Dyeing White Feathers in Black Birds 

Small patches of white or gray are sometimes covered 
by applying dyes or inks. As a rule, it can be detected 
upon close examination, and the faker depends m.ore on 
the chances of the dyed spot escaping notice than upon 
attempting to do a job that will defy detection. For 
large patches or feathers of white Hubbard avers that 
by first dampening the feathers in warm water, then ap- 
plying a gallic acid preparation made by adding a quarter 
of an ounce of gallic acid and a half pint of alcohol to 
a pint of water, following this in a few minutes with an 
application of a preparation of half an ounce of nitrate of 
silver, half an ounce of gum arabic, and two ounces of 
ammonia in half a pint of water, and after the feathers 
have dried rubbing them smooth with a sponge slightly 
dampened in water, the feather is given a black color that 
will pass inspection. 
Removing Tips or Edges of Different Color from Feathers 

This is done either by trimming with scissors, or by- 
burning with a hot wire, electric current used as in 
pyrography, or a lighted cigar (a flame must be avoided) 
or by rubbing and wearing off the edge or tip of the 
feather with pumice stone. None of these processes leave 
a natural edge on the feathers, and it is hardly possible to 
apply them at all extensively without giving the section 
of the plumage treated a peculiar look, which leads an ex- 
pert to take careful account of its condition. 



Removing Black from White Quills — A little black on 
the quill of a white feather — corresponding to ticking 
in the web — may be removed by rubbing with pumice 
stone. The damaged quill is then rubbed with chalk and 
the fingers to give it a more natural appearance. The 
treatment is discernible on close inspection but will 
often escape notice. 

Dyeing Buff and Red Plumage 

Reference was made on page 42 to the situation 
in regard to the coloring of Rhode Island Reds. Since 
that chapter was written I have learned that any exhib- 
itors of the breed who had copies of the book "Secrets of 
Expert Exhibitors" published in 1909 and sold under an 
agreement (of doubtful validity) that the buyer would not 
divulge any information therein contained, have been in 
possession of a secret formula for coloring red birds with 
an article in common use in poultry yards for medicinal 
purposes — permanganate of potassium. The method of 
using this is the same as that of using peroxide of hydro— 
•gen to bleach white feathers. The bird is washed and the 
permanganate of potassium applied after the last rinsing. 
The plumage is dampened all over with a permanganate 
solution of a strength previously determined by testing 
feathers taken from it. The hands of the operator are 
stained, and to remove the stain a saturated solution of 
oxalic acid is used. It is to be presumed that such a so- 
lution applied to the processed bird would give positive 
results; but I am not in a position at this writing to say 
that it would. The whole matter is one for further investi- 
gation and tests. What is known of dyeing buff color may 
throw some light on the subject. The best source of infor- 
mation on the subject is Wright, from whose "Illustrated 
Book of Poultry," 1902, the following is taken: 

"Buff dyeing has been so far chiefly found in Leg- 
horns and Orpingtons, and has usually been done by wash- 
ing in 'Maypole' soap or some other form of what is 
really aniline dye. Much harm was done at one time by 
a school of amateur detectives who professed to test 
buff dye by solutions of caustic potash. It is now known 
that potash solution dissolves out color from honest plum- 
age and is no test for aniline dye. There is fortunately 
a real test, as published by Dr. Mossop in "Poultry." Test 
tubes should be provided, about six inches long and three 
quarter inch bore, and, if possible, a genuine feather tested 
in one tube along with the suspected one — for only plucked 
single feathers ought ever to be tested; no one has a right 
to risk disfiguring the bird itself. The feather should be 
pushed right to the bottom of the tube, strong hydro- 
chloric acid poured in a half inch or more deep, and the 
tube a little shaken about (without spilling the strong 
acid) so that the feather, at first greasy, may become 
wetted by the acid. A feather dyed buff with Maypole 
soap or aniline dye will quickly turn a beautiful violet 
color; the genuine feather is unchanged beyond the dark- 
ening from being wetted. Dr. Mossop found one or two 
dyes that resisted this test, but these responded in another 
way, by losing all the dyed color to a solution of crystals 
of protochloride of tin dissolved to saturation in hydro- 
chloric acid diluted with its own bulk of water. This solu- 
tion spoils by keeping and should therefore be freshly 
made, dissolving a few crystals when wanted in the diluted 
acid. Sometimes a feather that seems to resist will bleach 
out the dye if the test tube containing the tin chloride is 
warmed over a spirit lamp. If no decided bleaching takes 
place then, and the feather has not been turned violet by 
the acid either, the plumage is probably honest, and at 
least no ordinary dye has been used:" 



CHAPTER X 
Care of Exhibition Birds in Transit and at Shows 

Advantages of Accompanying Exhibits — Timing Shipments to Shows — Methods of Shipping — Cooping at the Show to 
Display Each Bird to Best Advantage — Grooming for the Judge — General Care to Keep the Birds in Good 
Condition, Prevent Colds, Avoid Contagious Diseases — What to Do in Anticipation of Delay in Re- 
turning Birds 



AN exhibitor who intends to "stay in the game," and 
make his string one which competitors will have 
to reckon with, must either accompany his birds to 
the show and look after them from start to finish, or 
have some competent and dependable person to do so. 
It frequently happens that an outstanding single bird is 
sent a long way to a show without other attendance than 
the expressman and the attendants at the show give it, 
and comes out on top when the awards are placed: but 
I do not recall an instance of a string of birds winning 
under such conditions where they had real competition 
with birds fitted to the minute. 

All show associations advise prospective exhibitors 
that their birds will have "the best of care'' while at the 
show, frequently stating that it is "not necessary for you 



petition as they affect the present, or may figure in the 
future, which he ought to have. It should be accepted at 
the outset that if one wishes to exhibit regularly and 
successfully anywhere there must be some personal ac- 
quaintance with the situation and contact with show mana- 
agers, judges, and competitors. For that reason practi- 
cally all of the regular exhibitors at important shows are 
breeders who can attend them for at least one day, and 
most of them are people who can attend daily or several 
times during the week. 

Timing Shipments to Shows — Methods of Shipping 

Shipments of exhibits to poultry shows are usually 
timed to arrive on the day before that announced as the 
opening of the show. Most shows are held from a 




Left to right — G< 



MANAGERS OF POULTRY DEPARTMENTS OP FOUR GREAT EXPOSITIONS 

lurgott, Pan-American, Buffalo. 1901: T. E. Orr. St. Louis, 1904; John A. Murk 

Quisenberry, San Francisco, 1915 



Jamestown, 1907 



to accompany your birds." These advices are to be 
considered by the prudent exhibitor with such qualifi- 
cations as a knowledge of the situation suggests. It is 
not "necessary" for an exhibitor to accompany his birds 
to insure that they will have general good care, .and 
that all reasonable precautions will be taken for their safe- 
ty and health, and that judges will consider them impar- 
tially as they see them. In many cases a bird of extra 
high quality, or a string that has easy competition, may 
make a good winning without having had any other at- 
tention at the show than the regular attendants give it. 
But for every case of this kind there are many more of 
failure to win because the birds of the absent exhibitor did 
not receive the special attention at the show and the 
grooming before judging that the exhibitors present gave 
their birds. 

So if one expects to show regularly and win a satis- 
factory share of the premiums where he shows, it is quite 
essential that he see that his birds are as well looked after 
at the show as any of their competitors, and it is important 
that he be present at the show enough to be fully informed 
of the situation there, or have a representative capable 
of acting promptly in his interest, and on whom he can 
depend for information about the conditions of corn- 



Tuesday to the following Friday or Saturday, and as ex- 
press service over Sunday is usually slow and subject to 
extraordinary interruptions there is more or less uncertain- 
ty about the arrival of shipments which cannot be started 
on Monday morning with reasonable assurance that they 
will arrive at the show at some time during the day or 
evening. Many exhibitors, rather than have their birds 
on the route for more than the shortest time required to 
make the journey, will start a shipment for a show on 
Monday, knowing that the chances are even that it will 
be delayed and not reach the show in time for the judging, 
but trusting to the indulgence of show managers and com- 
petitors to postpone judging their class until their birds 
arrive. 

The bulk of the exhibits of birds at any show come 
from points near enough by rail to make the journey on 
the day before the opening, provided they are started 
early in the morning. An exhibitor so far away that he 
knows the chances are against his birds getting through 
in a day ought to consult the secretary of the show in ad- 
vance of shipment in regard to facilities for taking care 
of his birds if they arrive ahead of time, and be governed 
largely by that official's advice. The situation as it af- 
fects this may not be the same at any particular show 



140 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




FOUR OF THE MEN WHO RUN THE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN SHOW 



Cleveland, Direct' 
lay be found on page 10 



Pictures of T. A. Have- 



from year to year. That depends much upon the length 
of the interval between the removal of the exhibits of a 
show preceding the poultry show, and the beginning of 
the work of setting up the coops for the poultry show. 
Sometimes the poultry show management does not get 
possession of the hall until the day before their opening. 
In that case they might prefer that exhibitors should 
delay shipment and not have birds arriving earlier than the 
day before the opening but sometimes, with an interval be- 
tween the poultry show and the one preceding it, the work 
of setting up the coops and laying out the show begins 
four or five days before the date of opening, and in that 
case the management might prefer to have exhibits from 
distant points arrive early, and give them the necessary 
care, rather than take chances of their failure to arrive on 
time delaying judging in a class. The exhibitor in such 
cases could rely on his birds being well cared for after 
arrival: that is — there would be no neglect of them. They 
would be cooped as soon as they arrived or as coops were 
ready, and would be properly fed and watered. 

Exhibitors living within easy trucking distance usual- 
ly prefer to ship their birds to the show, over the road, by 
auto truck, rather than subject them to the transfers and 
possible exposures incident to the regular express service 
with its numerous transfers and conditions beyond their 
control. This method indeed was in favor long before 
the days of speedy auto trucks when a trip of twenty-five 
to thirty miles was a day's journey for a truck horse. 
An exhibitor, or perhaps two or three exhibitors in the 
same locality, arrange for a truck to take their birds and 
to return them from the show. They can then load the 



birds so there is no question about their safety and com- 
fort; protect them from the weather as may be necessary; 
and be sure that the load will arrive at the show with all 
the birds in good condition, and with no delays on account 
of other stuff handled by the truckman. The great ad- 
vantage to an exhibitor, or small group of exhibitors in 
handling birds in this way is that the birds can have the 
owners' personal supervision in loading, and again in 
unloading. 

Where a few exhibitors of poultry cannot charter a 
truck, it is often possible for the exhibitors in various 
classes at a poultry show, pigeons, pet stock, etc., who 
live in the same town, to arrange so that the local ex- 
press company will make a special load of their stuff and 
send it over the road by auto truck instead of by rail 
with the transfers incident to that mode of transportation. 
To secure this service exhibitors should notify the ex- 
press company far enough in advance for them to deter- 
mine whether the amount of stuff to be carried warrants 
it, and make arrangements accordingly. Failing this, 
it oftens happens that the local express company is mak- 
ing deliveries at a show at intervals through a day or 
more in taking stuff to the show, but knowing what is to 
be returned makes a single load and quicker delivery in 
getting the stuff home from the show. This it does 
primarily for its own advantage, but it would be equally 
to its advantage and very much to the advantage of ex- 
hibitors to handle exhibits to the shows in the same way. 
Ability to do so depends upon exhibitors notifying the ex- 
press company of shipments to the show a day or two in 
advance, and then having them ready at an appointed time. 




SOME POPULAR JUDGES ALWAYS SEEN AT BIG EASTERN SHOWS 
Left to right — John Kriner, H. W. Schriver, F. W. Rogers, W. H. Card 



CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS IN TRANSIT AND AT SHOWS 



141 




Some well-kn 



exhibitors who have been leaders in several varieties. Left to 
J. Fiske, Rufus Delafield 



ight — Wm. Barry Owen, Maurice F. Delano, Cha 



Shipping Coops 

Most exhibitors ship their birds to shows in ordinary 
shipping coops; but some of the larger exhibitors and a few 
others who show often, have for this purpose more sub- 
stantial coops, painted a uniform neat color and stenciled 
with the name and address of the yard or farm. Some- 
times these coops are built in long sections, combining 
several coops and requiring two men to handle. The ob- 
ject of this is primarily to keep a group of exhibits to- 
gether, insuring that they will not be separated in trans- 
portation, and perhaps one or more coops go astray. A 
secondary supposed advantage is that the large coop 
cannot be tossed about by careless expressmen, as a light 
single coop might be, and the shipment is therefore more 
carefully handled. This is a doubtful advantage in the 
case of a section of coops for large fowls, for the fact that 
the coop is not easily handled may lead to its being kept 
on the floor, pushed into a corner of a car, and buried 
under lighter coops and other merchandise, and the 
chances of birds in it being smothered considerably in- 
creased. Sectional coops are more used for bantams, 
pigeons and small pet stock, where single coops would be 
so small that there is much more danger of their being 
damaged by rough handling than the coop for ordinary 
fowls. 

Some exhibitors have the coops used for shipping 
birds to shows constructed so that they can be securely 
locked with padlocks. This practice, again, is most in 
vogue with exhibitors of small birds and stock which a 
thief can conceal about the person until he can dispose of 
them without being seen. In some cases where It is fol- 
lowed by exhibitors of large birds the object is to pre- 



vent the birds being taken from shipping coops and placed 
in the exhibition coops by the attendants at the show, the 
exhibitor preferring to have his birds handled only by 
himself or an employee in charge of his exhibit. 

It would seem unnecessary to say that shipping coops 
should be of good size, affording the birds both ample head 
room, and room for the males with long tails to keep the 
tails in good condition; yet there is hardly a large show 
that does not afford instances of exhibitors who ought to 
know better sending birds in coops much too small for 
them, and from which they are taken with damaged heads 
and tails, generally ruffled plumage, and sometimes so 
cramped that they cannot stand in a natural position for 
hours. I have seen a Leghorn cockerel arrive at Madison 
Square Garden in a box about eighteen inches long and 
ten inches high, literally jammed into the box. This of 
course is an extreme case, but there are many cases 
where the single-bird coops are too small for the birds 
sent in them. All large males with full furnishings should 
be shipped in square coops. 

The most careful exhibitors have each male in a 
separate coop, to insure that no possible damage can be 
done by hens picking the comb or feathers of a male be- 
tween the time they are cooped for shipment and the un- 
cooping at the show. The necessity for doing this will 
in each case depend on the circumstances. If an exhibitor 
has a good deal of trouble of this kind at home it is wise 
to take precaution. Ordinarily there is little danger of 
hens damaging the combs of males, or eating feathers, un- 
til after a few days' confinement at the show. 

Exhibitors showing a full string of birds usually ship 
a few extra birds to use in case anything goes wrong with 




eding and showing. Left to right — Frank H. Da\ 



M. L. Chapman. T. 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




LEADING BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK BREEDERS AND EXHIMTORS 

Left to right. Top row — E. B. Thompson, A. C. Hawkins, A. C. Smith, C. H, Latham. Second row — Victor Bradley, Chas. H. 
Welles, M. S. Gardner, E. L. Miles. Third row — Valentine Thompson, H. P. Schwab, Newton Cosh, W. L. Russell. Fourth row — 
W. D. Holterman, P. W. Richardson, W. W. Henderson, D. P. Palmer 



CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS IN TRANSIT AND AT SHOWS 



143 



any of the birds selected for entry. This is a matter of 
more importance to .the large exhibitor competing for 
prize, on collection, or hoping to make a clean sweep in a 
class, than to others. In general, the regular entry exhausts 
the exhibitor's selection of birds most suitable for the 
competition, and any alternates taken to the show are ot 
second quality. It does sometimes happen, however, that 
on arrival at a show a substitute bird is found to show 
better in the position secured than the original choice. 

Some exhibitors make it a point to follow their birds 
in transportation to a show, leaving home on the same 
train with them, getting in touch with their shipment at 
transfer points, and perhaps managing to speed it along 
by the judicious distribution of cigars or cash tips. It 
should be said that the process is by no means uniformly 
effective. Unless one knows the route and some of the 
men on it pretty well he may easily lose track of his 
shipment at a busy transfer point, and there have been 
cases where exhibitors who undertook to keep an eye on 
their birds en route wasted time looking- 
for them at a junction when they had 
gone on ahead and arrived at the show 
before the shipper did. While it is true 
that railway express service — especially 
of late years — has been subject to many 
delays, it is doubtful whether an exhibi- 
tor of poultry gains anything by trying 
to keep in touch with his long-distance 
shipment. 

The Exhibitor's "Kit" 

Many experienced exhibitors make 
it a point to take with them to a show 
supplies of simple remedies for the first 
stages of ordinary ailments, and also 
things used in fitting and conditioning 
birds which there may be occasion to 
use before the birds are judged: as 
preparations for the head and feet, 
small sponges and soft cloths. Some 
exhibitors also make a practice of tak- 
ing to a show a few heads of cabbage, 
some turnips, or apples, to have handy 
to give their birds from time to time. 
Such things can of course be obtained 

in the city where the show is held, but it is often more 
trouble to look them up than to take what is needed from 
home. 

Besides these things a small hainmer and screw driver, 
tweezers, a few tacks and small nails, a supply of the ex- 
hibitor's cards, and of circulars if he has them, may come 
handy. A long linen duster is also a desirable part of his 
equipment if he is to be at the show much and give a good 
deal of attention to his birds. Many exhibitors take a 
supply of small padlocks to lock their coops to prevent 
their birds being handled except by judges or when they 
are present. Locks, it should be said, only prevent the 
ordinary inquisitive handling. An unprincipled competitor 
who wishes to injure a bird can easily do so in spite of 
locks, and this occasionally happens. Such instances how- 
ever, are very rare, for suspicion almost immediately at- 
taches to the guilty party, and even when no proof against 
him can be obtained he is apt to find that he has injured 
himself more than the person whose birds he damaged. 
Cooping the Birds at the Show 

Except where shipping coops are locked, or in cases 
where the management expects exhibitors to attend to the 
cooping of their own birds at the show, the attendants 



at shows — after the exhibition coops are up — put the ex- 
hibits in their proper coops as fast as they arrive. While 
in setting up the coops at a large show a gang of unskilled 
laborers as available for such work may be employed, 
when it comes to handling the birds that work is entirely 
in the hands of the men employed for the period of the 
show for feeding and other routine work, and these are 
either regular employees of the cooping company or 
poultrymen engaged especially for the show. On the 
whole there is little occasion to take exception to their 
handling of exhibits. It is inevitable that in the hurry and 
rush there should sometimes be a little rougher handling 
of birds than the owner would approve, but there is sur- 
prisingly little of it. Indeed, in my observation, while 
I have seen an attendant sometimes very rough, I have 
seen a great deal more manhandling of birds by exhibitors 
than by attendants. In general, however, though the 
attendants are not rough they are not as careful as the 
exhibitors who handle birds with strict care to avoid any 




TYPICAL COLLECTION OF CUPS, MEDALS AND SILVERWARE SPECIALS OF- 
FERED AT POULTRY SHOWS 

injury to plumage or unnecessary excitement of the bird. 

Except for the first numbers in the breed and variety 
coming first in the classification at any particular show, 
the exhibitor can have no definite idea until he arrives 
at a show what sort of position and light his birds wll 
have. Most shows now make their classification follow 
the order in which the breeds are described in the Stand- 
ard, and No. 1 is a Barred Plymouth Rock cock. Boston 
(alone I believe of large shows) retains the old order with 
the Asiatics first, and here No. 1 is a Light Brahma 
cock. Barred Rocks at the Garden, and Light Brahmas at 
Boston will have the same position year after year, the 
differences in the numbers of entries from year to year 
making no material difference in the positions of these 
classes. And at most shows the Barred Rocks have the 
same position year after year. But as to the other breeds 
and varieties the farther down the- list we go the more 
variations in the entries in preceding classes affect position 
of a class, and sometimes the result of this is to bring an 
entire class into different conditions of light in a certain 
year than they ever had before. 

At New York. and Boston (in the main exhibition hall) 
and wherever the principal daylight comes from high 



144 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



windows or skylights, the light is generally better near 
the middle of the hall than at the sides, and the difference 
is greatest where there are galleries and the ends of the 
rows of coops extend under them. Further, at neany 
all large shows only a part of the exhibits can be staged 
on the main floor in the principal hall, and the result is 
that very often a part of some class is in that room and 
a part elsewhere under very different conditions of light. 

The exhibitor knows the numbers of the coops his 
birds are to occupy, for they have been furnished him 
with his shipping tags. On arriving at the show his first 
care is to see whether his birds have arrived, the next 
to find the location of their coops, and get them from the 
shipping to the exhibition coops, if that has not already 
been done by the attendants. His next concern is to size 
up the competition. In case his birds are late in arriving 
he may have an opportunity to do so in advance. 

Where a poultry show is double-tiered, particular at- 
tention should be given to placing the birds as far as 




COOPING BIRDS AT THE GARDEN 
Left — A. C. Smith with a winning S. C. Brown Leghori 
Right — C. H. Latham with a winning Barred Rock 

possible at the level at which they will show to best ad- 
vantage. The points to be considered were treated in de- 
tail in the chapter on Selection of Birds for Exhibition, 
and need not be repeated here. Where there is any 
choice of position, that is where an exhibitor happens to 
have an end coop, or one in better light than others, it 
is usually policy to put the best bird in this. On the 
other hand, where a bird has faults it is hoped the judge 
will overlook, it may help matters to give it poor light. 

In cooping white birds it is always well to thoroughly 
dust and wipe the inside of the coop that the clean plum- 
age of the birds may not be soiled by dust or contact 
with smudgy metal. The management of the show is sup- 
posed to look after all matters of this kind, but much work 
has to be left to indifferent and unskilled laborers, and so 
the only way to be sure that a coop is perfectly clean in- 
side is for the exhibitor himself to wipe it out carefully. 
In the cooping of colored birds this is not so important. 

An experienced exhibitor, familiar with the work of 
the judge who is to pass on his class, and not biased in 
judgment by partiality for his own birds, can usually tell 
on short inspection of a class just about what he may 
reasonably expect to win in, provided the birds show no 
faults in handling that put them below the position they 
seem to be entitled to when viewed from the aisle. It 
is here that the exhibitor present on the ground often 



finds that by making some changes in his entries he can 
probably win something where as they stand he seema 
destined to get low places or nothing all along the Jine. 
Thus his best cock or cockerel may be plainly beaten in 
the open class but may be good enough, with the females 
he has entered as a pen, to give him first on pen. So he 
takes the male first selected out of the pen and puts him 
in the open class, knowing he has not the remotest chance 
of winning there, and with his best male in the pen wins 
that prize. Or if he is beaten on females in the open 
class, it may be that one or more of the females entered 
there will strengthen a pen enough to enable him to win 
with it. 

The converse too may happen: unable to win on a 
pen, he may be able to take birds from it to the open 
class with some prospect that they will be placed there. 
He can do this, of course, only in so far as his entries in 
both classes admit of exchanges — he cannot change entries 
as they appear on the records, making new entries or 
cancelling old ones. There is a species 
of irregularity in this practice of substitu- 
tion or exchange in entries, for the birds 
as entered are supposed to be identified 
by the bands they wear, and the absent 
exhibitor has no chance to take like ad- 
vantages. The practice is one that show 
managers do not appear to take cogni- 
zance of officially. But it has always been 
done, and will be as long as exhibitors 
take charge of their own exhibits at 
shows and have the opportunity to 
"jockey" them in this manner. Exhibi- 
tors who desire to do so must always 
have charge of their exhibits at shows, 
and the opportunity to shift them to suit 
conditions of light or competition will 
I exist as long as show specimens are not 
j/riL registered. 

The uncertainties and inequalities of 
j male light in most exhibition halls furnish the 

P ullet best excuse for such manipulation of en- 

tries. Within a class, as cockerels, an exhibitor has little 
opportunity to save himself if he happens to draw a num- 
ber in entering that when the cooping is arranged comes 
in a very bad light. He may help matters by splitting his 
entry — that is, entering some birds early, and others just 
before the entries close — but there is a possible marked ad- 
vantage in this only in a large class. But as between the 
light where his single birds are cooped and that where his 
pens are cooped there may be a great difference, some- 
times favorable to one, sometimes to the other, and as it is 
impossible to foresee such things custom sanctions the 
practice of shifting entries where the classification permits 
at any time before judging begins. 

Grooming the Birds at the Show 
An exhibitor cooping his own birds at the show 
looks each bird over as he handles it for any derange- 
ment of plumage and smooths feathers that are out of 
place. If his fitting of the birds before shipment has 
been very thorough and they have come through in good 
shape he is not likely to do anything more to them until 
the morning of the first day of the show when the judging 
is supposed to begin (and does), if all classes and judges 
and their books or cards are ready. If an exhibitor has been 
pressed for time in fitting his birds and has not done the 
work as thoroughly as he wished, he usually proceeds 
with it as soon as they are cooped at the show, and 



CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS IN TRANSIT AND AT SHOW'S 



145 



continues doing what he can for each bird until the judg- 
ing of his class begins. In any case the morning of the 
day judging begins finds every exhibitor who has attended 
his birds to the show giving them a final examination and 
grooming. 

The things of most importance at this time are to 
brighten up the head parts and legs, to see that the plum- 
age is clean and free from dust, and that the birds are 
free from traces of down on the shanks, and on nr be- 
tween the toes. Many exhibitors do not look for down 
en shanks and toes until going over the birds just before 
judging, because it is well established that down will 
sometimes appear overnight, and the only way to be sure 
that the birds are free from it when judged, is to look 
'them over just before. If, as frequently happens, the 
judging is not completed the first day, the birds to be 
passed on should still have attention on the morning of the 
next day. It is generally assumed that exhibitors will 
give their birds these attentions early in the morning, 
and not be engaged grooming birds in one class while 
the judge is at work on another, but as shows are ar- 
ranged it will sometimes happen that an exhibitor can 
handle his birds very close to the time the judge be- 
gins on a class without any suggestion of his being trying 
in anyway to attract attention to them. 

Some Matters Relating to Judging in Progress 
At many of the minor shows, particularly where most 
of the exhibitors are novices, it is a common practice for 
a judge to do his work with a "gallery" of exhibitors and 
visitors crowding about him, while he makes audible 
comments on the birds as he handles them, and sometimes 
stops to explain points of interest. This practice is adapt- 
ed to small shows, and to small classes where decisions 
are easily made; but is not considered practical in large 
classes or in close competition, where the judge cannot 
make his decisions with the same readiness and accuracy, 
and wants to concentrate all his thoughts on the one 
thing of placing the awards right. That the judge may 
do this without distraction it is the general rule — some- 
times unwritten, sometimes more or less specifically set 
forth in the regulations of the show — that there is to be 
no interference of any sort with the judge in the perform- 
ance of his duty, that exhibitors are to keep away from 
him, or if — as is often the case — the judge tolerates 
their presence at not too close range, they are to re- 
frain from any remarks regarding birds in the ciass that 
might be considered suggestive and designed to influence 
his decisions. 

American exhibitors generally accept the decisions of 
a judge without protest. While the regulations provide 
for protests in certain cases, it is only where something 
is grossly wrong, and so bad that it ought not to be 
passed over, that protests are usually made. The general 
sentiment is against them, and many exhibitors consider 
it poor policy to make protests no matter how great the 
apparent provocation. The whole tendency of reform 
measures in this country, in the poultry shows as else- 
where, is to overlook what cannot be remedied, but to 
take precautions that the sam/e thing shall not happen 
again. There are a few old and generally successful ex- 
hibitors who are known to the fraternity as "bad losers" 
and are apt severely to criticise judges under whom they 
do not get all the awards they think they should; but on the 
whole the disposition of exhibitors is to accept things 
as they come, and if a judge's work is very unsatisfactory 
to them to express their disapproval by refusing to show 
under him again. 



General Care of Birds at the Show 

Until the judging is over an exhibitors chief concern 
is to keep his birds in the pink of condition that nothing 
may mar the impression they make on the judge. After 
the awards are made he may relax something in the way 
of grooming, yet should bear in mind that it is a very 
decided advantage to him to keep them looking as well all 
through the show as when they faced the judge. To do 
this he must still give some attention to their appear- 
ance, and he must further give a great deal of attention 
to their condition and appetites and habits. Most birds 
are at their best at a show after a day and a night in 
their exhibition coop has enabled them to rest from the 
effects of their journey to the show, and to become ac- 
customed to their surroundings. There are birds that will 
come out of the shipping coop perfectly fresh and be im- 
mediately at home in the exhibition coop, but most show 




WAITING FOR THE WORD TO START JTOGING 
Two old-timers. Left. Julius Frank: right, F. B. Zimiuer 

better after a night's rest, and when they have begun to 
feel at home. Thus birds arriving on the morning of 
the day of judging are often handicapped by their tired 
condition and are placed lower than they would have been 
if judged on the following day. Meantime, the com- 
petitor that won has lost a little .of his condition, and for 
that day the later arrival of two birds very equal in merit 
may appear to stand out as very superior, especially in 
form and style. But in another day, he too begins to show 
the effects of confinement, extraordinary excitement, more 
or less miscellaneous handling, unaccustomed feeding, 
and late hours; and unless special care is given to keep 
bjrds in good condition they are likely to be considerably 
reduced in vitality and somewhat rough looking before the 
close of the show. 

Birds of the heavier breeds, with a pronounced tend- 
ency to put on fat, are usually most affected. Birds 
with large combs and crests are more affected by show- 
room conditions than those without crests and with small 
combs. The heat of the showroom often makes a comb 
grow much larger and the suddenly increased size and 
weight of it makes a bird very uncomfortable. The heat 
and weight of a large crest seem to have much the sarrle 
effect, though there may not be an increase in weight of 
the crest such as occurs in weight of comb. 

Some exhibitors try to keep their birds in better con- 
dition throughout a show by attending to the feeding and 



146 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 





VETERAN PLYMOUTH ROCK BREEDERS 
Pishel, White Rocks; H. S. Burdick, P. C. Shepherd, Buff; H. W. Halbach, White 



watering themselves. They have cards printed with the 
legend "Do not feed or water these birds," and place 
one of these on each of their coops. There are two ob- 
jections to this practice. The first is that it interferes with 
the systematic feeding and watering of exhibits by regular 
attendants. They do their work much better when all 
they have to consider is to put practically the same amount 
of feed and water in every one of a long row of coops. 
As poultry are cooped in competitive classes at a show, 
an exhibitor who places the above notices on his coops 
might have in one place a single coop, in another place 
two or three coops, and so on. In many cases the attend- 
ant does not notice a sign of this kind until after he has 
fed a bird. Then he omits feeding others beside it. When 
the owner or special attendant comes around he feeds 
all alike. The result is that some are overfed. 

The second objection is that exhibitors who request 
that their birds be not fed by attendants do not always 
get around and look after them regularly. Thus at most 
large shows some of the exhibitors who prohibit attend- 
ants of the show feeding and watering their birds go home, 
perhaps thirty or forty miles at night, expecting to be back 
by the middle of the morning next day, and are detained 
until late in the day, or perhaps are not able to get in that 
day at all. An exhibitor in such a case may telephone the 
management. The management with many other details 
to look after may or may not give the matter attention. 
The exhibitor is quite as likely to fail to notify anyone to 
look after his birds. The emergency might be met in any 
one of several ways, but it is not, and the birds go hungry 
and thirsty. 

I recall one instance in particular where an exhibitor 
was taken sick and his birds went without feed or water 



for three days before anyone in a position to act in the 
matter discovered it. I have known of so many cases 
where from accident or forgetfulness exhibitors who ob- 
jected to having their birds fed by the management of 
a show neglected the birds themselves, that it seems very 
clear to me that it is much better for exhibitors to have 
their birds fed grain with the rest, and counteract the 
possible bad effects of heavy grain feeding in close con- 
finement by giving the birds succulent green feed in 
small amounts, at least daily, and several times a day if 
possible. Many exhibitors make it a point to always 
have something of this kind with them when they are 
about their coops during a show. They will stand before 
a coop, or go from coop to coop, whittling bits from a 
turnip, an apple, an onion, or a piece of cabbage, and feed- 
ing these to the birds, or will allow the birds to pick 
from the object in the hand. 

Besides the effect on the diet such attentions serve 
to interest the birds and prevent them from seeking di- 
version in the vices of comb and feather eating, which are 
very likely to develop when they have too long periods 
with nothing in particular to do. Birds that get some 
little attention from one in charge of them at frequent 
intervals during the day are also more alert when others 
pass their coop than those that get no individual attention 
at all after the judge has been through the class. One 
of the most forlorn objects imaginable is such a neglected 
bird toward the end of a show. It will remain in the cor- 
ner of its coop, taking no interest at all in what is going 
on, and showing all symptoms of utter misery, while right 
beside it a bird whose owner has looked after its wants 
carefully through the week is right up on its toes challeng- 
ing the admiration of every passer. It is by no means all 




WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK BREEDERS OP THE YOUNGER GENERATION 
Left to right: W. A. Halbach, A. P. Poltl, J. T. Thompson, J. G. Jones 



CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS IN TRANSIT AND AT SHOWS 



147 




■iKht: 



EXHIBITORS WHO PUT 
Sheppard, Anconas; F. C. St: 



AND KEEP 
?r, Anconas: 



THEIR 
Geo. B. 



FAVORITES "ON THE MAP' 
Inches, Silver Gray Dorkings; 



M. R. Jacobus, Campines 



in the bird: What the owner does for it makes a very- 
great difference. 

Conditions in a showroom are generally much more 
productive of colds than the ordinary conditions of poultry 
life. The temperature in a large show hall is likely to be 
uniform only when the outside temperature is mild. The 
colder the weather the more unequal temperature con- 
ditions in the show become: the birds near the radiators 
will be much too warm, while those distant from them 
may be in an atmosphere more chill than the outside 
air. .Drafts are much more plentiful than in the ordinary 
poultry house, and as the vitality of the birds becomes a 
little lower day after day they contract colds much more 
readily than when at home. 

For these conditions only partial preventive measures 
are possible. Where a current of hot air rises near a coop 
it may be diverted and its effects largely reduced by plac- 
ing a screen so that its direction will t>e diverted as much 
as possible. Where a cold current strikes a coop, the 
effect of the draft may be largely reduced, sometimes 
entirely so, by covering the back and top of the coop. 
If, notwithstanding these precautions, birds are still 
evidently uncomfortable under the conditions existing, 
the only thing to do is to remove them to a place where 
they will be safe. This may be done either by transferring 
them to exhibition coops in other parts of the hall, or 
by moving the coops in which they are, or by puttng them 
in their shipping coops, off exhibiton, and in a comfortable 
place. 

The measure in any case must depend upon circum- 
stances. It is not always possible to change the position 
of a section of coops. In most large shows there are 



here and there through the show coops that are vacant 
because the entries assigned to them were not sent. To 
the extent of their numbers these are available for birds 
that should be moved from their places. As a last resort, 
the return to the shipping coop, and putting that in a com- 
fortable place is always available. The common trouble 
is that exhibitors do not act promptly when they know 
that the conditions are wrong and are injurious to their 
birds, but wait until the birds are seriously affected. 

Fall fairs are usually not open in the evening, but 
at winter shows, and especially at smaller shows, the 
evening attendance is large, and the long day, added to 
other irregularities of life, is very hard on many of the 
birds. The brilliant overhead lights in particular seem to 
distress many of them. To relieve this as much as pos- 
sible exhibitors who are looking carefully after the com- 
fort of their birds shade the tops of the coops with news- 
paper, or large sheets of heavy wrapping paper. 

At the Close of the Show 

Some shows keep all exhibits in place until the clos- 
ing hour on the last day. When this is 10 o'clock of a 
Saturday night there is little opportunity to get the 
birds out before Monday. A few exhibitors whose birds 
can be started for home at once, if they can get the ex- 
press companies to take them before midnight, make a 
special effort and get them away. Those who have 
brought their entries in by auto truck also often have it 
arranged to start them home as soon as they can be put 
in their coops after the close of the show. 

Sometimes it happens that another show is coming 
into the hall immediately, and the dismantling of the 




EXHIBITORS WHO PUT AND KEEP THEIR FAVORITES ' 
i A. Gamewell, Golden Penciled Hamburgs; Dr. J. S. Wolfe, 
. Templeton, Cornish 



ON THE MAP" 
Silver Spangled Hamburgs 



Watson Westfall. 



148 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 





First row, left to right: 
Thiem, Golden and Buff; W. A. 
Steinmesrh, White; P. L. Matt 
Laced; W. E. Samson, Silver Laeed 



VETERAN WYANDOTTE BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 
M. Brings, originator of both White and Columbian Wvandottes; F. A. Houdlette, Silver Liced ; E. O. 
little, originator of Partridge. Second row: Ira Kellar, Golden and Silver Laced and White: Henrv 
lilver Laced and Buff; Arthur G. Duston, White. Third row: L. Whittaker. originator of Silver 
Dr. N. W. Sanborn, Buff; Julius Bachman, Silver Laced 



whole show has to begin at once and go on all night. 
In that case the birds are all cooped and delivered to the 
express companies as rapidly as possible and it rests with 
them to handle them as best as they can. As a rule, 
however, the birds can remain in the hall over Sunday, 
and the general removal take place Monday in a leisurely 
manner. Where a show begins and ends in the middle 
of a week the conditions relating to shipments in and 
out are usually more satisfactory, especially in the re- 
turn, for the birds all go out promptly the morning after 
the show. 

Birds that are not attended by the owner or his rep- 
resentative are usually left in their places in the exhibition 
coops when they have to stay in the hall over Sunday. 
Where the owner or his agent is present his attitude in this 



will be governed either by the condition of the birds, or 
conditions as they affect the birds, or whether it is more 
important to him to get back immediately to his home 
and poultry or other business, or to continue careful at- 
tention to his exhibition birds until they are delivered to 
the express company. 

Some breeders coop their bird for return shipment 
immediately upon the close of the show even though they 
know they will not be taken by the express company 
until the second day following. They may or may not 
put a little grain and something succulent in the coops 
for them to eat. In many cases they do not do so because 
they consider that after the full feeding and inactive life 
the birds have had for the past week or more a two or 
three days' fast will be more beneficial than harmful. 



CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS IN TRANSIT AND AT SHOWS 



149 








LEADING WYANDOTTE BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 

First row, left to right: John S. Martin, J. W. Andrews. Chas. Nixon, A. J. Pell. Second row, C. I. Pishel, W. W. 
Demberger, Chas V Keeler — all these breeders of White Wvandottes. Third row: R. G. Williams, J. P. Van Alstyne, Silver 
Howland, Buff; Levi A. Ayres, Columbian. Fourth row: H. B. Hark, Partridge; Fred C. Lisk, H. J. Riley, Dr. W. H. Humisto 



L. J. 
Laced; S. A. 
i, White 



150 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 




LEADING RHODE 
Lester Tompkins, H 



ISLAND RED 
ipkL 



BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 

Almy, I. W. Bean. Second 



E. W. Mahood, A. A. Carver, E. H. Rucker, C. R. Baker 



R. G. Buffington, G. W. 



The urgency of the need for the exhibitor himself to 
return home probably is the determining factor in most 
cases, and the fasting theory an excuse that relieves his 
mind of the feeling that he is not giving the birds proper 
treatment. What to do is sometimes difficult to decide. 
One exhibitor with a large string of valuable birds is apt 
to stay with them and leave them in the exhibition coops 
until just previous to delivery to the express company. 
Another may consider that his birds and interests at home 
need him most urgently, and therefore the show birds must 
now take whatever risks there may be in leaving it to 
the show management to see that they are properly cared 
for until started home. 

At most fall fairs, and at many minor shows where 
the attendance is light on the last day and evening, it is 
the practice to begin to take out exhibits about the middle 
of the afternoon. This admits of getting the birds all 
started for home that day. 



In general there is little trouble with birds being 
missent in returning from shows. An occasional error 
is unavoidable, and once in a long time there is what 
appears to be a deliberate case of thievery of a desired 
bird, but where birds of desirable quality which would 
lead one to take chances of wrongful appropriation of 
a coveted bird are as well known as is usually the case, 
the chances of detection are too great to be lightly 
risked. Most of the birds that are missent eventually get 
back to their rightful owners. Where a bird is lost the 
loss usually falls on the exhibitor, though in some cases 
the circumstances may be such that the express company 
or the management of the show can be held liable. It is 
a common practice for show managers to put in the rules 
of the show a disclaimer of liability for damage or loss 
of birds entered. The principal effect of this is to deter 
complaints, and to make intending complainants very 
careful to be sure they have a case before putting in a 



CARE OF EXHIBITION BIRDS IN TRANSIT AND AT SHOWS 



151 




LEADING ORPINGTON BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 
First row, left to right: Ernest Kellerstrass, P. A. Cook, J. M. Williams, C. S. Byers. Second row: 
ley, Wm. Hobbs, G. E. Greenwood. Third row: C. H. Barnes, A. G. Goodacre, J. E. Church, R. E. Sandy. 



J. I. Lyle, Harold Rawns- 
Below, Len> Rawnsley. 



claim for damages on account of damage, 
death or loss of birds. Where there is plain 
negligence or tolerance of conditions extra- 
ordinarily prejudicial to the health of birds 
and damage results, a show association can- 
not protect itself by making a rule to that 
effect, and associations do frequently pay 
for losses — chiefly of birds lost on the re- 
turn home — when they lack evidence that 
they have done their part in due form. 

The number of birds that as a result 
of being shown contract "temperature dis- 
eases" which developing at or after the 
show impair their usefulness for months and 
perhaps lead to death, is many times great- 
er than the loss through misshipmenr or 




theft. For such damage and loss an as- 
sociation is in no measure liable. It is an 
ordinary risk of showing — and very large- 
ly dependent upon weather changes. Such 
effects are also much more common with 
birds that are shown at a number of >hcws 
and sometimes kept under very unfavorable 
conditions for a week or two between 
shows at which they are entered, than with 
Tjirds that are shown but once and have 
proper attention. The fact that a bird 
which went to a show in prime condition is 
returned from it "roupy" does not prove 
that it was exposed to special contagion at 
the show. It indicates only that unfavor- 
able conditions, with some lowering of vi- 



152 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



tality, made it a prey to germs usually everywhere present 
in small numbers, which normally it would resist. Experi- 
enced exhibitors at a show where the changes of outdoor 
temperature have been extreme and it has been impossible 
to keep the large hall always comfortable, either for birds 
or for people, often remark: "There will be a lot of good 
birds die on account of this." 

Tine hall that has been heated more or less uniformly 
during a show always has the heat turned off at the close 
of the show. The opinion is very general among ex- 
hibitors that there is less risk of loss of birds in bad weath- 
er if they remain in the hall for some hours after it has 
cooled thoroughly than if they are shipped from the hall 
while it is warm. All this however, is largely conjectural. 
In most cases the birds after leaving the hall have to 
take the usual chances of riding next to steam pipes in 
express cars, of standing on trucks outdoors, or of re- 
maining on wind-swept platforms until thoroughly chilled. 
That being the case it must often be doubtful whether the 
precautions taken to harden the birds have benefited them. 
There are times when with a blizzard raging as a show 
closes it is plainly wise to hold the birds until it mod- 
erates. Under all ordinary circumstances it is best to 
get the birds home as soon as possible. There is not 
really anything to choose between the hardships of re- 
maining cooped at the showroom and the hardships of 
the journey. 

Care of Birds After Return 

Birds that have been shown should, be quarantined 
upon their return long enough to insure that they have 
not brought with them germs of any disease which they 
would communicate to the flock. Nearly everyone' admits 
that this rule ought to be followed. The fact that exhibitors 
on the whole totally disregard it shows quite conclu- 
sively how slight are the risks in this respect. Colds affect- 
ing the birds returned are common, but there are so 
few cases of epidemics brought home from, shows, that 
the quarantine precaution is commonly disregarded with 
impunity. While that is the fact, and -the risk is light, the 



exhibitor should bear in mind that the risk is always 
present and that every once in a while disease introduced 
in this way will go through a flock and cause very heavy 
loss. The risk to the bird shown cannot be entirely avoid- 
ed. The risk to those at home can be. 

After consideration of precaution against disease com- 
municated to the flock the most imperative thing is to 
get the birds that have been shown in good breeding con- 
dition. Nearly all birds that have a tendency to put 
on fat. and that keep well and hearty through a show, 
come home a little overfat and soft. They should at 
once be given a diet and exercise that will reduce weight 
and restore energy. Nearly all birds have vitality and 
fertility more or less affected by showing, and their 
future usefulness as breeders depends on their being 
brought back to good breeding condition as promptly as 
possible. The owner can now disregard all the precautions 
which before showing he took to protect the bird from 
the slightest damage to plumage. It must take all chances 
of ordinary wear and tear both to feathers and to head 
parts. 

On the average it is a matter of three or four weeks 
after birds return from a show before they are in good 
breeding condition. An occasional bird does not seem to 
have been affected at all, but many take much longer than 
the average to get back in form, and in some cases a bird 
does not show good breeding form (as evidenced by fertil- 
ity and the vitality of its offspring) until after settled 
warm weather. No special methods of restoring breeding 
condition are used. All that can be done is to give reg- 
ular good care and as good yard or range conditions as 
possible and wait for Nature to do her work. There are 
some cases, mostly in old birds of the heavier breeds, 
where the experience of showing apparently permanently 
spoils a bird for breeding. The risk is one that cannot be 
avoided in individual cases. But as a matter of general 
breeding policy much can be done to escape such results 
by not breeding at all from specimens which do not show 
good breeding form within a comparatively short time 
after being shown. 




PROMINENT BLACK LANGSHAN EXHIBITORS 
Left to right: M. S. Barker, L. E. Meyer, W. A. Meyer 



CHAPTER XI 



Analysis of Methods of Judging 



'Points" in Standard Poultry — How Standard Descriptions Affect Judging Practice — The Per Cent Method of Cutting 

for Defects — Why It Is Impractical — Symmetry, Historically and Technically — How Misunderstanding of the 

Term Arose — Objections to Taking the Best Bird As the Standard — Improvement in Score-Card Judging 



THE second chapter of this book gives the information 
about the judging of standard poultry needed by an 
exhibitor in selecting and fitting birds for exhibition. 
In this and following chapters the philosophy and evo- 
lution of methods of judging will be presented for those 
who wish a thorough understanding of the subject. While 
these chapters cover in greater detail topics treated in a 
general way in Chapter II the treatment of the subject 
for purposes of that chapter emphasizes various things 
which are not absolutely essential to the purposes of 
these later chapters, yet do 
help to a clearer understand- 
ing of them. The student of 
the subject as here presented 
should consider Chapter II 
preparatory to this more ex- 
haustive treatment of the sub- 
ject. 

At the outset of this study 
it is desirable to get a true 
view of the services of the 
pioneers in developing meth- 
ods of judging poultry and 
of the value of their ideas and 
methods. Considering a meth- 
od of judging that has been 
lortg in use, or any theory re- 
garding it that is widely ac- 
cepted as having stood the 

test of time and use, we are quite apt to credit the originat- 
ors of such ideas, theories and methods with superior sa- 
gacity and intuition. That seems quite natural and logical in 
the abstract, but it happens that in this matter of judg- 
ing poultry some of the men who had most to do with 
devising and popularizing systematic judging of poultry 
lived a long time after it was established, and while their 
contemporaries duly honored them for their general ser- 
vices in the promotion of poultry interests they did not es- 
pecially defer to their views in matters relating to judging. 
On the contrary, when some of them discovered faults in 
the very methods they had devised, and advocated im- 
provements on them, they were unable to secure any gen- 




era! following. In other cases men of great influence in 
developing one method appeared quite unable to grasp 
simple principles in another. 

So in a general way it may be said of the men to 
whom we owe the forms first given to systematic poultry 
judging that their ideas were as good as could be produced 
at that stage of the improvement of poultry, and in the 
circumstances of the time. Of no one who has since taken 
an interest in the matter can it be said that he has dem- 
onstrated an understanding of the subject which would 
suggest that in the same cir- 
cumstances he would have 
done better. But the breeding 
of poultry has advanced a 
long way since the methods 
of judging in vogue were 
worked out, and — as we shall 
see — improvement in methods 
of judging has not kept 
pace with this progress. And 
the modern student of the 
subject who thoroughly in- 
forms himself of its history 
and the present conditions is 
unquestionably better qual- 
ified to critically analyze 
methods and theories of judg- 
ing than were the men who 
originated them. He has the 
opportunity to see them applied to better birds, in strong- 
er competition, by more competent judges. 

What we need to do in studying judging today, is to 
recognize and retain the wise features of the early systems, 
and at the same time to recognize and reject their faults. It 
is neither to our credit nor to that of our predecessors 
for us to continue in their errors. At one of the meetings 
of the American Poultry Association where errors in a 
recent edition of the "'Standard of Perfection" were under 
discussion, the late Mr. Fred L. Kimmey made this pithy 
statement: "Now, I am going back to the time the 
Standard started. We fools are doing what those fools 
did, AXD WE ARE DOING IT NOW." 



FOREMOST POULTRY ARTISTS 
nklane L. Sewell, Arthur O. Schillin 




SUCCESSFUL BIG SHOW MANAGERS 
Left to right: L. D. Howell, Robt. Seaman, Grand Central Palace Show, New York; W. B. Atherton, Boston; Theo. Hewes, Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis 



154 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



We shall see as this subject is presented analytically 
that, notwithstanding the tendency to extreme conserva- 
tism in the improvement of methods of judging, there 
has been consistent progress in certain definite directions. 
and that this indicates quite clearly the trend of future 
developments. 

"Points" in Standard Poultry 

A point of an object or animal is a particular char- 
acter, feature or attribute. A point in computing scores in 
a competition is the unit of numerical valuation placed 
upon excellence or performance. 

In the Standard formulated by the London Poultry 
Club, and reprinted in America, "with alterations and ad- 
ditions," in 1867, the description of each breed or closely 
like group is followed by a list of "points" for the breed 
or group of which the following is an example: 

Points in Brahmas 

Size 3 

Color 4 

Head and Comb 1 

Wings. Primaries well tucked under 

secondaries 1 

Legs, and feathering of ditto 1 

Fluff 1 

Symmetry 2 

Condition 2 

IS 
It is easy to see from this how points were reckoned 
in judging — the method is so obvious that the early 
Standards had not a word in explanation of it. If a 
Brahma had what was regarded as good full size it was 
credited three points on that score. If color was con- 
sidered good it had a credit of four on that score, and so 
on through the list. The maximum; score possible was 
IS. The basis of judgment might be either an ideal in 
the mind of the judge or judges, or the best specimen — 
or best in the character under consideration — in the class. 
It is evident that with such a system of scoring the practice 
of considering values of the sections in the list in terms 
of fractions of the maximum allotted each would arise. 
It is also easy to see how the idea that different valu- 
ations should be placed on the same section in different 
breeds and sometimes in different varieties of the same 
breed arose. A comparison of lists of points brings it 
out at once. Thus in the Dorkings there were three dif- 
ferent lists of points, none like that for the Brahmas. 

Points in Silver Gray Dorkings 

Size 3 

Color 3 

Head and Comb .- 2 

Legs, Feet and Toes 2 

Symmetry 3 

Condition 2 

15 
Points in White Dorkings 

Size 4 

, Purity of White Plumage 2 

Head and Comb 2 

Legs, Feet and Toes 2 

Symmetry 3 

Condition 2 



IS 



Points in Colored Dorkings 

Size 5 

Head and Comb 2 

Legs, Feet and Toes 2 

Symmetry 4 

Condition - 

15 
Here there are three different maximum scores for 
size, and for color, and two different maximum scores 
for symmetry. These differences were not made according 
to the theory developed in later days of a careful ap- 
praisal of values in different sections, varieties and breeds 
in their ideal forms, but were crude adjustments of the 
points to the varieties as they were, to the popular ideas 
of value in different characters and breeds, and to the re- 
quirements of the very common practice of having dif- 
ferent varieties, and sometimes different breeds com- 
pete in the same class. White had to be handicapped in 
competition with the parti-colored silver gray, therefore 
a point had to be taken from color on the white variety 
and put somewhere else. The Colored Dorking of the 
time was really any other colored Dorking — specimens 
neither silver gray nor white, and with no excellence in 
color that might entitle them to credit in that section. 
So color is omitted and extra credit given size and sym- 
metry. 

Comparing some of the other lists of points we find 
everywhere the same practice of giving large credits to 
a few conspicuous points, and of singling out certain char- 
acters as most worthy of the attention of the breeder and 
judge. The Black Spanish afford one of the extreme 
cases of this kind. 

Points in Spanish Fowls 

Comb 2 

Face 3 

Ear Lobe 3 

Purity of White Face and Ear Lobe 2 

Symmetry , 3 

Condition of Plumage 2 

15 

Here 10 of the 15 points are awarded to head and ad- 
juncts and neither size nor color of plumage are con- 
sidered at all — no matter how good a bird might be in 
those respects it received no credit. Nlearly every list of 
points in the book will furnish similar evidence of how 
the practice of placing high valuations on some points 
and ignoring others arose. Space will permit only the 
mention of a few of the worst cases: 

In White-Crested Black Polish 9 of the 15 credit 
points had to go to head and crest. In the Houdan the 
fifth claw had a possible credit of 1 point in the total of 
15, otherwise, legs and toes had none at all. In La Fleche 
the deaf ear had a whole point to itself. In the Rouen 
Dnck the shape and color of the bill might count for 3 
points, one-fifth of the total possible credits. 

It was by comparison judging with such a system of 
credits for points that poultry were judged at American 
shows from the time this Standard appeared until the 
publication of the first edition of the American Poultry 
Association's Standard of Excellence in 1875. 

How Standard Descriptions Affected Scoring 

The tabulations of points that have been given show 
how in judging of birds attention was fixed on a few 
points, and it has been explained that this practice be- 
came established as the result of conditions developing 



ANALYSIS OF METHODS OF JUDGING 



155 



when there were no written or printed standards, and each 
judge or committee of judges made standards to suit 
them. Seeing only the list of points from the early 
standards, one familiar with the "Standard of Perfection" 
would very naturally suppose that the descriptions were 

BRAHMAS 1867 

General Shape 

The Cock 

Beak — Very strong, taper and well curved. 

Comb — Pea, small, low in front and firm on the head without 
falling over to either side, distinctly divided so as to have the ap- 
pearance of three small combs joined together in the lower part and 
back, the largest in the middle, each part slightly and evenly serrated. 

Head — Small and slender. 

Eyes — Prominent and bright. 

Deaf Ear — Large and pendant. 

Wattles — Small, well rounded on the lower edge. 

Neck — Long, neatly curved, slender near the head, the juncture 
very distinct, hackle full and abundant, flowing well over the shoul- 
ders. 

Breast — Very full, broad and round; carried well forward. 

Back — Short, broad, flat betwixt the shoulders, saddle feathers 
very abundant. 

Wings — Small, the primaries doubled well under the secondaries; 
the points covered by the saddle feathers. 

Tail — Small; carried very upright, the higher feathers spread- 
ing out laterally. Broad. 

Tail Coverts — Very abundant, soft and curved over the tail. 

Thighs — Very large and strong; abundantly covered with very 
soft, fluffy feathers, curving inward around the hock so as to hide 
the joint from view. Vulture hocks, that is, those with hard, stiff 
feathers projecting in a straight line beyond the joint, are objec- 
tionable but not a disqualification. 

Fluff — "Very abundant and soft, covering the hind parts, and 
standing out behind the thighs, giving the bird a very broad and deep 
appearance behind. 

Legs —Rather strong and large ; standing well apart, very abund- 
antly feathered down the outside to the end of the toes. 

Toes — Straight and strong; the outer and middle toe being 
abundantly feathered. 

Carriage — Very upright and strutting. 
The Hen 

Beak — Strong, curved and taper. 

Comb — Pea, very small, and low, placed in front of the head, 
and having the appearance of three very small serrated combs 
pressed together, the largest in the middle. 

Head — Small and slender. 

Eye — Prominent and bright. . 

Deaf Ear — Large and pendant. 

Wattles — Small, rounded on the lower edge. 

Neck — Rather short, neatly curved, slender near the head, the 
juncture very distinct, full and broad in the lower part; the feath- 
ers reaching well onto the shoulders. 

Breast— -Very deep, round, broad and prominent. 

Back — Broad and short; the feathers of the neck reaching to 
betwixt the shoulders, and abundance of soft, broad feathers rising 
to the tail. 

Wings — Small ; the bow covered by the breast feathers, the pri- 
maries doubled well under the secondaries, the points of the wings 
clipped well into the abundance of soft feathers and fluff. 

Tail — Small; very upright, almost buried in the soft rump of 
feathers. 

Thighs — Strong and well covered with very soft feathers, curv- 
ing round the hock so as to hide the joint from view. Vulture 
hocks are objectionable, but not a disqualification. 

Fluff- — Very abundant and soft, standing out about the hind 
parts and thighs, giving the bird a very broad and deep appearance 
behind. 

Legs — Short, very strong, wide apart, abundantly feathered on 
the outside to the toes. 

Toes — Straight and strong, the outer and middle toe being well 
feathered. 

Carriage — Low in comparison to the cock. 

LIGHT BRAHMAS 

Color of Cock 
Comb, Face, Deaf Ear and Wattles — Rich bright red. 
Head— White. 

Neck — White, with a distinct black stripe down the center 
of each feather. 

Breast, Underpart of Body and Thighs — White. 

Back, and Shoulder Coverts — White. 

Saddle — White striped with black. 

Wing Bow and Coverts — White. 

Wing Primaries — Black. 

Wing Secondaries — White on outside web, black on inside web. 

Tail — Black. 

Tail Coverts — Glossy greenish black; lesser coverts silvered on 
the edge. 

Legs — Scales bright yellow; feathers white, slightly mottled 
with black. 

Color of Hen 

Comb, Face, Deaf Ear and Wattles — Bright red. 

Head — White. 

Neck — White, distinctly striped down the middle of each feather 
with rich black. 

Breast and Back — White. 

Wing — White, the primaries above being bl 

Tail — Black, the two highest or deck featht 

Thighs and Fluff — White 

Legs — Bright 

DISQUALIFICATIONS 
Birds not matching in the pen, combs not uniform in the pen, 
or falling over to one side, crooked backs, legs not feathered to the 
toes, or of any other color except yellow, or dusky yellow. 



also deficient — treating the few points mentioned in the 
scales in elaborate detail, and either omitting the others 
or saying little of them. On the contrary, the outline of 
the descriptions was much the same as that in use in 
our Standard now, the style of statement was that which 
is still used, and the specifications described the breeds and 
varieties as they were at the time quite as well as the 
Standard does today. 

To show this, and for purposes of references in fur- 
ther discussion of the subject the descriptions of the 
Light Brahma and the White Leghorn are here reprinted 
from the 1867 Standard, and in parallel columns the 

AMERICAN STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE 1875 

LIGHT BRAHMAS 

The Cock 



length, slightly projecting over the 
Eyes, large and bright; Beak, short, 
with a dark stripe down the upper 



edged with white. 
ich yellow; feathers white, slightly mottled with 



Head — Bread, of med 

eyes; color of plumage, wh 
stout, and, in color, yello 
mandible. 

Comb — Pea, small, lower in front and rear than in the centre; 
firm on the head and distinctly divided, having the appearance of 
three small combs pressed together, the largest and highest in the 
middle, and each part slightly and evenly serrated. Color, rich, 
bright red. 

Wattles and Ear Lobes — Of equal length, the wattles being well 
rounded. Color, rich, bright red. 

Neck — Rather long and well arched, the hackle flowing well over 
the shoulders; plumage of the upper part white, the lower two-thirds 
being distinctly striped with black, the stripe tapering to a point 
at the extremity of the feather. 

Back — Broad, flat between the shoulders, and as long as is con- 
sistent with the size and symmetrical proportions of the bird ; sad- 
dle feathers well developed — sxirface color, white; undercolor, either 
white or bluish whit-e. 

Breast and Body — Breast full, broad and round, and carried well 
forward. Body, round at the sides, and deep; — color of both, white. 

Wings— Small, the bows covered by the breast feathers, — color 
of bows white; the primaries closely folded under the secondaries; — 
color of primaries, black or nearly so; — color of secondaries, white 
on the outer web, and black on the inner web. 

Tail — Full, well spread, carried tolerably upright, and well 
filled underneath with rich curling feathers ; color of tail, black ; — 
Sickle feathers, short and spreading laterally, and in color, black; — 
coverts, glossy greenish black; — lesser coverts, black, with white edge. 

Fluff — Abundant and soft, giving the bird a broad appearance 
behind — color, white. 

Legs and Toes — Thighs, strong and well covered with soft white 
feathers; — Shanks strong, standing well apart, of medium length, 
and well feathered on the outside ; color of scales, yellow, inside 
of the legs, yellow or reddish yellow; shank feathers white, or white 
mottled with black; — Toes, straight and strong, the outer toes 
being well feathered to the ends thereof; the feathering of middle 
toes optional with breeders. 

Carriage — Bold and attractive. 

The Hen 

Head — Broad, of medium length, and slightly projecting over 
the eyes; plumage white; — Beak, short and stout — color, yellow, with 
or without dark stripe down the upper mandible ; — Eyes, large and 
bright. 

Comb — Pea, small and low, with delicate but distinctly defined 
serrations, firm and even upon the head, and in color, bright red. 

Wattles and Ear Lobes — Wattles, exceedingly small; — Ear lobes 
well developed; — color, rich red. 

Neck — Of medium length and 'well arched, — hackle feathers, 
white, with a broad black stripe down the center, the edge of the 
black running nearly parallel with the edge of the feather, and 
reaching well over the shoulders. 

Back — Broad, flat between the shoulders, and as long as is con- 
sistent with the size and symmetrical beauty of the bird; feathers 
broad and soft, and rising to the tail; surface color, white, — under 
color, either white or bluish-white. 

Breast and Body — Breast, full, broad and round, and carried well 
forward; — Body, round at the sides, and deep; — color of both, white. 

Wings — Small, the bows covered by the breast feathers; the pri- 
maries smoothly folded under the secondaries ; — color of primaries, 
black, or nearly so, — color of secondaries, white on the outer web, 
and black on the inner web. 

Tail — Rather small and spreading, — color black; — the two 
highest, or main tail feathers, edged with white; — tail coverts, 
black edged with white. 

Fluff — Abundant and soft, giving the bird a broad appearance 
behind — color, white. 

Legs and Toes — Thighs, strong, and abundantly covered with 
soft, white feathers; — Shanks, strong, standing well apart, and well 
feathered on the outside with white feathers, or white mottled with 
black; — Toes, straight and strong, the outer toes being well feath- 
ered to the ends,-— the feathering of middle toes optional with 
breeders. 

Carriage — Low, in comparison with that of the cock. 

DISQUALIFICATIONS* 

Birds not matching in the show pen; comb falling over to 
either side; twisted feathers in the wings; shanks not feathered 
down the outer sides, and to the extremities of the outer toes, or of 
any other color than yellow; vulture hocks; undercolor any other 
than white or bluish white ; crooked backs ; wry tails; cocks not 
weighing nine pounds; hens not weighing seven and a half pounds; 
cockerels not weighing seven and a half pounds; pullets not weigh- 
ing six pounds. 

*Note — In the 1875 Standard the list of disqualifications pre- 
cedes the descriptions. The position is changed here for comparison 
with the older Standard. 



156 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION.' 



descriptions af them in the first edition of the American 
Standard of Excellence, 1875. The Brahma description in 
the American book of 1867 is taken verbatim from the 
original English version. The White Leghorn description 
originated here, Leghorns being little if at all known in 
England at that time. It is in order to note here that the 
White Leghorn was the first variety of the breed to be 
recognized in the making of standards, and that it was 
given first place in the list of varieties in the 1875 Standard. 
Later the Brown Leghorn was given first place — probably 
because it was the most popular, but possibly because it 
was supposed to be the original variety of the breed. 

Comparison of the specifications of these Standards 
eight years apart, and representing the ideas of two 
quite distinct groups of breeders and judges, will bring 
up many questions in the mind of the reader, but we are 
more concerned here with the form and the general aspects 
of the- different standards, and in general an adequate 
treatment of the evolution of standards for particular 
breeds can be undertaken only in a book especially devoted 
to one breed. There is, however, one point here where 
the change is so extreme that it should be explained: — 
that is the change from the white face to the red face in 
White Leghorns. No one familiar with the references 
to cross-bred and alleged purebred fowls in the fifties 
and sixties of the last century can doubt that White Leg- 
horns of this description contained a large admixture of 
Spanish blood. Such fowls were sometimes called White 
Leghorn, or White Italian, and sometimes White Spanish. 
When the Leghorn grew in popularity, and the Black 
Spanish declined, it was natural to eliminate the char- 
acteristics of the latter, and also traces of White Ham- 
burg crosses, as quickly as possible. 

Turning again to consideration of the relation be- 
tween the descriptions and the lists of points in the first 



Standard, the list of Brahma points in it was given on 
page 154. The list of White Leghorn Points is: 

Points in White Leghorns 

Comb 2 

Face and Ear Lobe 3 

Purity of Plumage 3 

Size 3 

Symmetry 2 

Condition 2 

15 
Xow, comparing the number of different characters, 
or attributes, or groups of such, included in the description 
of a bird, with the number included in the list of points 
of merit or excellence, it is evident at a glance that there 
are several times as many of the points of description 
as of the points of scoring. Counting them it appears 
that in the shape description of the Brahma male there 
are 17 sections, in the shape description of the female 16 
sections, in the color descriptions of the male 12 sec- 
tions, and in the color description of the female 8 sec-, 
tions, while in the list of points there are only 8 sections. 
In the White Leghorns, male and female, there are 16 
sections in the description, shape and color being de- 
scribed together in each, and only 6 sections in the list 
of points. 

In comparing the descriptive and recording lists, it 
is seen at once that the discrepancy is actually very much 
greater than is indicated by the comparison of numbers 
of sections, and that there is very little correspondence 
between the two lists. In each list of points there are 
3 sections that do not appear at all in the descriptions in 
this standard — size, symmetry, and condition, and in each 
case they take collectively 7 of the 15 points, leaving only 
8 credit points, divided in the Brahmas among 5 sec- 



WHITE LEGHORN 1867 



Beak — Rather 
Comb — Bright 



large 



The Cock 
nd stout. 

arge, erect, single, straight, and free from 
either side, deeply serrated, extending well 
hark over the head and free from side sprigs or excrescences. 

Head — Short and deep. 

Eyes — Large and full. 

Face — Opaque white, free from wrinkles or folds. 

Ear Lobes — Pure opaque white, rather pendant, thin, fitting 
close t<- the head, smooth, and free from folds and wrinkles. 

Wattles — Bright red, long, thin and pendulous. 

Neck — Long and well hackled. 

Breast — Full, round, and carried well forward. 

Body — Rather square, but heaviest forward. 

Wings — Large, and carried well up. 

Tail — Large and full, carried very upright; sickle feather 
and well curved. 

Thighs — Medium length, and rather slender. 

Legs — Long, white or yellow, yellow preferable. 

Plumage — Pure white throughout. The neck hackle and saddle 
may lie tinged with gold or straw color. 

Carriage — Upright, and pleasing. 

Disqualifications in White Leghorn Cocks 

Comb falling over on one side, or twisted: decided red about 
the tare; plumage any other color than pure white, with a golden 
tinge on neck, hackle and saddle. 

The Hen 

Beak — Rather long and stout. 

Comb — Bright red, large, single and drooping to one side, ser- 
rated and free from side sprigs. 

Head — Short and deep. 

Eyes — Large and full. 

Face — Opaque white, free from wrinkles or folds. 

Ear Lobes — Pure opaque white, rather pendant, thin, and fit- 
ting close to the head, smooth, and free from folds or wrinkles. 

Wattles — Bright red, thin, and rounded on lower edge. 

Neck — Long and graceful. 

Breast — Full and round. 

Body — Deep, broader in front than back. 

Wings — Large, and well tucked up. 

Tail — Large and full, carried very upright, feathers broad. 

Thighs — Rather long and slender. 

Legs — Long, white or yellow, yellow preferred. 

Plumage — Pure white, the more free from yellow tinge the better. 

Carriage — Not as upright as the cock. 

Disqualifications in White Leghorn Hens 
Duplioature of comb, any red about the ear lobe or face, prick- 
combed, plumage the least marked, or any other color than white. 



AMERICAN STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE 1875 
WHITE LEGHORNS 
The Cock 
Head — Short and d 
long and stout; — Eyes, 
wrinkles or folds. 

Comb — Red, of medium size, erect, firmly fixed on the head, 
single, straight, deeply serrated (having but five or six points — five 
preferred), extending well over the back of the head, and free 
from twists, side sprigs, or excrescences. 

Ear Lobes and Wattles — Ear lobes, white or creamy white, fit- 
ting close to the head, and rather pendant, smooth and thin, and 
folds or wrinkles: — Wattles, red, long and pendulous. 



Neck-- 



pure 



ekle abundant. 
,-hite. 
dth — color, whit 



arched 
well over the shoulders, — color 

Back— Of medium length 
possible from yellowish tinge. 

Breast and Body — Breast, full, round, and i 
ward; — Body, rather broad, but heaviest forward — 

Wings — Large and well folded — color white. 

Tail — Large, full and somewhat expanded, and 
■ight; sickle feathers, large and well curved; — tail 



and flo 



ng 



color 



pur 



vhitr 



long 



Legs — Thighs, of medium length and rather 
white: — Shanks, long, and in color, bright yellow. 
Carriage — Upright and proud. 

The Hen 

Head — Of medium size: color, white; — Beak, 
stout, and in color, yellow; — Eyes, red, full and bright; — Pace, 
red and free from wrinkles or folds. 

Comb — Red, of medium size, single, drooping to one 
serrated, and free from side sprigs. 

Ear Lobes and Wattles — Ear lobes, white or creamy white, fit- 
ting close to the head, rather pendant, smooth and thin, and free 
from folds and wrinkles; — Wattles, bright red, thin, and well rounded. 

Neck — Long and graceful, and pure white in color. 

Back — Of medium length, full, and in color, pure white. 

Breast and Body — Breast, full, and round, and in color, pure 
white. Bodv. deep, broader in front than in the rear. Color, white. 

Wings — Long, well folded, and clear white. 

Tail — Upright, full and long, and in color, pure white. 

Legs — Thighs, of medium length, rather slender, and i 
white: — Shanks, long and slender, and in color, bright yello 

Carriage — Not so upright as that of the cock. 



evenly 



olor. 



Comb falling o 
or duplicate in hem 
other than white, or w 
crooked backs; wry tails. 



DISQUALIFICATIONS 

• to either side, or twisted in cocks, 
red ear lobes; legs other than yello 



th colored feathers in any part thereof; 



ANALYSIS OF METHODS OF JUDGING 



157 



tions, and in the Leghorns among 3 sections. Attempts 
to judge by such a crude system of scoring applied to 
comparatively elaborate descriptive standards could not 
give satisfactory results. When judges made awards right 
in close competition, using this system, results were credit- 
able to their own discernment, or to their skill in supple- 
menting its deficiencies. It was inevitable that there should 
be a general lack of uniformity in the work of those using 
it. Such records as were made by it were of little value to 
anyone, and so far as is now known they were not made 
in any regular form, or used for any purpose but the guid- 
ance of the judges in making awards. 

American judges and breeders soon became dissatis- 
fied with some features of the first Standard, and very 
much so with the conditions of judging under it. There 
was also some confusion because of conflicting versions 
of the printed Standard. To remedy these conditions, 
and issue a better Standard, and establish better and more 
uniform judging", was the prime object of the organization 
of the American Poultry Association. Its revision of 
the original Standard published in 1875 was designed to 
be used with a practical system of scoring, and of mak- 
ing permanent records of the work of the judge in placing 
awards in competition. The plan devised was not per- 
fect, but it was a wonderful improvement over the old 
method, and it was the first of the several factors that 
have been generally and highly effective in the develop- 
ment of the general high quality, the uniformity of type, 
and the perfection of finish found in America standard- 
bred poultry today. 

In its main features, if not in its entirety, the system 
was devised by I. K. Felch, who was then and for long 
after the leading poultry judge in America, and the only 
one whose major occupation was judging poultry. The 
system he created grew out of his efforts to improve upon 
the first crude methods of scoring. 

Briefly, the principal change and improvement con- 
sisted in making the sections for recording scores cor- 
respond with the sections of the description, making the 
maximum number of points large enough to meet the 
requirement of cutting for many different faults, and 
applying the system of cutting for defects directly and 
positively instead of by reduction of the credits given. 
Here again the features of the methods introduced were 
not the result of. elaborate and ingenious calculation 
to make all the parts of the systemi fit perfectly and to 
secure consistency throughout, but were simply the eas- 
ily made improvements on the old practice which ex- 
perience had suggested, and the adaptations of common 
practices in marking and scoring for other purposes — 
specifically in the grading of the work of pupils at school 
and in the marking of contestants in academic contests. 
The suggestions to judges in this Standard and the lists 
of points for the two breeds and varieties that have been 
used as examples are given herewith: 

SUGGESTIONS TO JUDGES 
To Be Considered in Applying the Standard 

The American Poultry Assoriation, in placing the American 
Standard of Excellence before the Breeders and Fanciers of the 
United States and Canada, recommend that, in its application, Judges 
shall determine the merits of competing specimens by a careful ex- 
amination of all the points named, commencing with "Symmetry," 
and following the schedule through in the order named in the table 
of values, and deducting such per centum for defects, as may be ap- 
parent, from the full value of a perfect bird. 

In all competitions where "Size and Weight" are considered 
points of merit, the largest and heaviest specimen in its class shall 
be deemed a perfect bird; and other contestants shall be rated com- 
paratively, losing as many points to the pound as are designated in 
the scale for such variety. 

In adjudicating the merits of Light Brahmas, no value shall be 
placed on middle toe feathering, or any preference given to either 
white or bluish undercolor of the plumage. 

Combs turning slightly over to one side of the head, hut firm 
in position, while considered objectionable, shall not he a disqual- 



ification, under the specification in the Standard, "combs falling 
over to either side." 

It is respectfully recommended that State and County Societies 
appoint but one Judge, and one alternate to each class, or variety 
in each class, and that their names be published in the regular pre- 
mium list. 

It is also recommended that eighty-five points shall be the min- 
imum value nf a bird to which a first prize shall be awarded. 
Points in Light Brahmas 

Symmetrv 10 

Size and Weight 13 

Condition 3 

Head .", 

Comb 8 

Wattles and Ear Lobes "> 

Neck in 

Back 7 

Breast and Body 7 

Wings : 8 

Tail 7 

Fluff 

Legs and Toes 7 

100 
Comparisons in Pi«- and Weight shall be in the ration nf 2 
points to the pound. 

Points in White Leghorns 

Symmetry in 

Size in 

Condition 10 

Head 7 

Comb 15 

Ear Lobes and Wattles 15 

Neck r, 

Back 5 

Breast ami Body 8 

Wings 

Tail 5 

Legs 5 

100 
I have quoted the suggestions to judges in full, 
although there are several paragraphs not relating to 
matters to be considered here, because they are the begin- 
nings of explanations of the use of the Standard, and be- 
cause, brief as they are, they constituted all the gen- 
eral guidance the judge or breeder had in interpreting the 
Standard for thirteen years after this one was issued. 
At the time this 1875 Standard was made and what has 
since been called the "official" score card was devised 
and the methods of using it worked out, the common 
method of marking pupils in schools in this country, in 
both recitations and examinations, was on the basis of 
a mark of 100 for a perfect recitation or paper, with de- 
ductions for errors. 

In examinations of various kinds it was a common 
practice to give a list of ten topics or questions, each of 
which counted 10 in the mark for the work. It was also 
a common practice to excuse from examinatons at the end 
of a month or term pupils who had a grade of 85 in their 
daily recitations or in examinations on their work for 
short periods. In contests in essay writing, oratory, etc., 
it was a comnion practice to mark the best — in the 
opinion of the judge — 100, and to grade other perform- 
ances accordingly. We can see in these things the ori- 
gin of the idea that a bird scoring less than 85 points 
ought not to receive a first prize, the origin of the idea 
of making the largest bird in the class the standard for 
size and weight in judging it, and the origin of the idea 
of dividing the characters or parts of a bird into 10 sec- 
tions for consideration in judging it. 

The list of points for Brahmas contains 13 items. But 
the first three of'these relate to general characters or con- 
ditions. In consideration of the specimen in detail it is 
divided into 10 sections. Table No. 1, on page 172, giving 
a list of points for other breeds and varieties in this Stand- 
ard, shows how the other breeds came to have more or 
less than 10 sections of detail. It was simply a matter of 
a prominent character more or less. In the allotment of 
points to the different detail sections shape and color were 
lumped together. Theoretically, at least, this was a back- 
ward step. It was later corrected by making the division 
regarded as appropriate to each. 

The principle and procedure followed in the division 



158 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



of the maximum of 100 points among the sections to be 
marked in making the score were the same as in the 
making of the first Standard. Conspicuous and favorite 
features were given high values, so were some general 
characters, and what points were left were divided with 
some approach to uniformity among the other sections. 
Thus the neck of the Brahma, which was the feature to 
which the breeders of that time were devoting most at- 
tention, was given 10 points while the tail was given only 
7. By referring to Table No. 2, page 173, the reader will see 
that eventually neck, back, wings, tail and breast were given 
the same valuation of 10 points. Similarly in the White 
Leghorn, the comb was given 15 points, the ear lobes 
and wattles another 15 points, while most of the other 
detail sections were given a valuation of only 5 points. 
Table No. 2 shows in this case also how the valuations 
have since been equalized. 



The Per Cent Method of Cutting for Defects 

The instructions as to the method of scoring in the 
1875 Standard were not clear. They do not plainly show 
that the per centum cut was to be computed upon the 
valuation of a section in the list of values of points, and 
that the deduction "from the full value of a perfect bird" 
referred to the method of computing the score after the 
cuts had been made. As the mode of practice — the theory 
of it — was frequently explained both verbally and in 
print by judges, there was no difficulty in understanding 
it. 

But one has only to look at the lists of points to 
appreciate the practical difficulties of the actual application 
of the per cent theory to the cuts for defects. An estimate 
that a section or character lacked ten per cent of perfection 
applied to a list of sections of different numerical values 
gives a lot of cuts in dissimilar fractions, which cannot 




LEADING LEGHORN BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 
These are all breeders of White Leghorns except as otherwise stated. First row, left to right: D. W. Young, Edward Knapp, 
C. H. Wyckoff, Irving F. Rice. Second row: R. Thompson, Bion H. Naldrett, C. S. Phelps, P. Sciarra. Third row: Wm. M. T. Sher- 
wood, Geo. B. Ferris, Frank Gloeckl, Howard L. Goss, Black Leghorn 



ANALYSIS OF METHODS OF JUDGING 



159 



be quickly reduced to a common denominator. It is not 
necessary to give examples here in detail. Any child who 
understands the simplest operations in fractions and per- 
centage can see by a glance at one of these lists of 
points that only a mathematical prodigy could calculate 
values of defects in this way. No one in practice under 
the ordinary conditions of judging could apply the rule 
regularly and consistently. Judges, however, did under- 
take to compute the values of the ntost common faults 
and degrees of fault by applying the per cent rule to the 
valuations given different sections, and the result was 
that each gradually established his own scales of specific 
cuts — some cutting much harder for certain defects, or 
harder all along the line than others. The fact that each 
judge at this time divided points to shape and color in 
each section to suit himself tended to make still greater 
variations. There was also great difference of opinion as 
to the proper way of judging for symmetry. 

"Symmetry" Historically and Technically 

"Symmetry" in the 1867 Standard plainly means either 
the whole shape of a bird, or such points of shape as were 
not especially mentioned in the list of points. In the 
descriptions of breeds and varieties the shape of many 
characters is specified, as is the "carriage," but in the 
lists of points there may or may not be reference to 
shape of detailed sections, usually there is not, though 
often the form of the statement would seem to imply 
that the credit was for good shape. 

Examining the list of points in Brahmas in this 
connection, it is seen that there is hardly an item where 
the application is not doubtful. Thus if we consider that 
"Color" means all color on the specimen, the next four 
points will appear to refer only to shape in the characters 



mentioned. But if we assume that such is the case we 
get the absurd result of head and comb, wings, legs and 
fluff, given each 1 point of special valuation, while all 
other sections combined have only 2 points. On the 
other hand, if we assume that the points given the four 
sections mentioned apply in part to color, we get into 
a similar difficulty there. 

When we examine the White Leghorn schedule to 
find what "symmetry" applies to in it, we find that it ap- 
pears to apply to shape of everything but the head. In 
the Dorking it appears to apply to shape of everything but 
head and feet. So we might go through many varieties with- 
out finding a definite meaning for "Symmetry"; but it 
happens that in the list of points in Black Hamburgs 
"Shape" is used instead of "symmetry"; that in the list 
for Crevecoeurs "Shape and symmetry" are coupled to- 
gether and given the number of points usually accorded 
"Symmetry"; and that in a number of other varieties the 
two terms are used interchangeably. A critical consider- 
ation of the use of the term in the first Standards leaves 
no doubt that "symmetry" there meant shape both a» 
applying to descriptive shape points generally, and in the 
broad sense of typical shape. 

In the 1867 Standard of Excellence "Symmetry" was 
placed at the head of every list of points, and given the 
uniform valuation of 10, while shape in every section 
described in detail had such proportion of the points given 
that section as each judge saw fit to give it. Under the 
general instructions as to the practice of scoring, the 
judge was to cut for faults in "Symmetry," and then cut 
for shape faults in' each and every section as he reached 
it. The Glossary of Technical Terms defined it thus: 

"Symmetry — perfection of proportion — often con- 
founded with carriage, but quite distinct, as a bird may be 




PROMINENT LEGHORN BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 
Wm. F. Brace, S. C. Brown; Aug. D. Arnold, S. C. Buff; E. E. Emerson, S. 0. White; W. W. Kulp, 
n; W. H. Wiebke, H. V. Tormohlen, W. G. Warnoch, S. C. Brown 



160 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



nearly perfect in his proportions, and yet 'carry' himself 
awkwardly." 

The distinction which it is lure sought to explain 
is one that the ordinary mind does not grasp, and that 
those who think that they apprehend have never succeeded 
in conveying to others. Few things have been more ex- 
haustively explained with as little result. To most minds 
it appears that due consideration of all points of shape, 
section by section, necessarily includes or results in due 
consideration of the sections collectively, and that if the 
results of the detailed consideration of shape do not agree, 
one or both must be wrong. To most of those who had 
to consider the matter it appeared that to cut for "sym- 
metry" and also cut according to instructions for shape 
faults in the detailed sections was to "punish" shape faults 
twice. 

From what has been said of the use of the term in 
the first Standards, and of the methods by which the sys- 
tems were evolved, it seems quite plain that the inclusion 
of "Symmetry" in the list of points in the 1875 Standard, 
which otherwise fully provided for Shape in every sec- 
tion, was an error. Referring to Table No. 2. page 173, the 
reader may note that in all but a few neglected breeds the 
valuation of "Symmetry" in the list of points has been re- 
duced from 10 to 4. As will be fully explained farther on, 
this has come about because in the system of scoring sym- 
metry is not an essential section and so can be robbed 
of its points of valuation as the need of an additional 
point elsewhere arises without creating either theoretical 
or actual difficulties. 

In common judging practice the custom early arose 
of giving all birds scored a light cut on "symmetry" and 
making this heavier when a specimen was conspicuously 
off type for its breed. In most cases, however, the cut 
for symmetry was uniform and perfunctory. I have 
seen many judges mark a cut of Vi for symmetry on ev- 
ery card before they had looked at the class at all. They 
justified this on the ground that they had never seen a 
specimen so perfect that it did not merit that much of 
a cut. I have also seen judges in scoring a specimen 
where their estimates of the values of faults in several 
sections happened to come about halfway between two 
customary specific cuts — as Vi and 1 — give the lower cut 
in each section and then increase their cut on symmetry to 
make the final score what it should be. This procedure 
too has a certain amount of reasonableness in it, though 
it cannot be said to be in the line of accuracy. 
The "Best Bird" As a Standard 

The 187S Standard provided that in the matter of size 
and weight the largest bird in a class should be considered 
perfect, and the other should be cut at the rate of 2 points 
to the pound for the differences between its weight and 
theirs. Such a provision was so directly contrary to the 
purposes of a Standard, and its bad effects could be so 
easily foreseen, that its acceptance can only be explained 
on the ground that it had only hasty consideration — 
as we know has often been the case with errors in later 
days. As it applied to weights it was corrected in the 1883 
edition of the Standard, but its other possible appli- 
cations continued long after and caused a great deal of 
unsatisfactory work in score-card judging. 



Many good judges are unconsciously influenced in their 
work by the impression made upon their minds by the 
birds they see before them, or have recently seen. Their 
mental standards for a breed or variety tend to go up 
and down with the quality they have seen latest. As the 
illustration of standard poultry has been developed in 
the last quarter of a century pictures of good models and 
of sections superior in finish help to correct this tend- 
ency. Also breeders and judges everywhere are much 
more familiar with the best, and near-best models than 
they were in the earlier years of the Standard. It was 
not until 1905 that the Standard itself showed ideal pro- 
files. A few crude outlines of profiles' were put in the 
first edition of the 1888 Standard, but they were so unsat- 
isfactory that the edition was declared obsolete. 

For fully twenty years aftejr the introduction of 
score-card judging illustrations of ideal birds were un- 
known, and both breeders and judges were more influenced 
by the peculiarities of the most attractive specimens 
they saw than has been generally the case since ideal 
illustrations appeared in the Standard. This is one of 
the facts that needs especially to be considered in view- 
ing the faults of score-card judging in the period when 
it was used exclusively in America. 

Improvement in Score-Card Judging 

Aside from the giving of definite standard weights 
to a number of breeds, and the abolition of the rule that 
the largest bird should fix the standard of size and weight 
for his class, no material change affecting judging was 
made in the Standard until 1888. Then the points for 
shape and color in the detailed sections were divided, each 
class of characters being assigned its definite number. 
The general tendency was to divide them equally, but in 
operation this was modified slightly by the number of 
possible faults under each in any particular section. As 
in the earlier Standards many sections had small, odd 
numbers representing their total valuation, it became 
necessary to find extra points for them. So these were 
drawn systematically from the three general sections — 
Symmetry, Weight and Condition. 

By this time the authority of the Standard and the gen- 
eral popularity of the score-card- method of judging — not- 
withstanding the obvious faults of both — were sufficiently 
established to warrant the American Poultry Associaton 
taking a little different attitude toward judging. Instead of 
the short list of "Suggestions to Judges," this book con- 
tained several pages of "Instructions to Judges." The points 
of most general importance in these were: the regulations 
in regard to applying standard weights; the provision that 
where no weights were required size should govern to 
some extent in the application of awards, but not to the 
prejudice of any other quality; the requirement that judges 
should mark cuts for shape and color separately; and the 
raising of the minimum scores entitling birds to prizes to 
88 points for a first prize, and 85 points as the lowest score 
that should be given any prize. These changes were in the 
right direction, but fell far short of what was really neces- 
sary in order to make standard judging keep pace with 
standard breeding. 



CHAPTER XII 



Philosophy of Judging and Relation of Judging Systems 

The Decimal System — Equality of Value in Characters — Actual Process of Scoring — Return to Comparison Judging- 

Analysis of the Features of the Comparison and Score-Card Methods Showing the Limitations of Each Which 

Prevent Its Acceptance to the Complete and Permanent Exclusion of the Other 



ONE immediate result of the action of the American 
Poultry Association in withdrawing the illustrated 
edition of the 1888 Revised Standard from sale, 
declaring it obsolete, and substituting an edition minus 
the illustrations, was the publication of "The Philosophy 
of Judging" by I. K. Felch and H. S. Babcock, with 
illustrations by J. Henry Lee, the best known poultry 
artist of the time. This book was in its introduction a 
protest against the action of the Association, and in the 
main an exposition of the "Decimal System" of score- 
card judging followed by an apparently unintended dem- 
onstration of the fact that the "scale of points" as used in 
the Standards of the American Poultry Association, is not 
a factor in score-card judging as commonly practiced. 

The first edition of the 1888 Standard besides giving 
profile outlines of a number of breeds (not nearly all) had 
provided in the instructions to judges, that in considering 
"Symmetry" the judge should 
be guided by these profile 
outlines. These outlines 
were not particularly good 
even for their time, and for 
the judge to follow his own 
interpretations, or the com- 
mon interpretations, of cor- 
rect standard shape, section 
by section, and then mark 
symmetry by comparison 
with them was absurd and 
could only lead to confusion. 
The idea of illustrations in 
the Standard was sound, but 
the method of carrying it out 
fas defective. The illustra- 
tions in "The Philosophy of 
Judging" showed the color pattern in the outlines, and are 
rather better than the outlines in the obsolete Standard; 
also nearly all breeds were illustrated. However expert 
breeders of the time may have regarded these illustrations, 
they were greatly appreciated by novices and amateurs 
generally as the only available series of the kind, and sup- 
posed' to be representa- 
tive of the ideals of 
three eminent authori- 
ties. 

The "Decimal System" 

of Score-Card 

Judging 

As has been pointed 
out, the regulation sys- 
tem of score-card judg- 
ing was in reality a mis- 
application of the deci- 
mal plan of dividing and 
valuing sections, brought 
about by the difficulties 
of combining old and 
new ideas. With further B - N - PIERCE 

. , ,. , Prominent jud^e, editor and poul- 

consideration and expe- try artist 




H. S. BABCOCK 
Author with I. K. Felch of 
Philosophy of Judging' 



'The 




rience in judging by his original plan, Mr. Felch and oth- 
ers had reached the conclusion that a different division 
of the sections to be considered could be made in such a 
way that the total number of sections to be considered 
would be 10, and that the division could not be made in 
such a way that each of these sections could appropriately 
be given a value of 10 in the scale of points. No argu- 
ment is needed to show that such results are within the 
bounds of possibility — and I venture to say that if cus- 
tom and usage had not fixed in fanciers' minds the idea 
of unequal valuation of characters which, as has been 
shown, had its origin in the partiality of judges and 
breeders in England for overdevelopment of peculiar o r 
conspicuous characters, the idea that all characters are of 
equal value would have been accepted in America without 
hesitation. I base this assertion on the fact, which will 
be fully brought out in this discussion of judging, that, 
aside from the theoretical application of the idea of 'n- 
equality of values in 
sections, and in 
characters, in the di- 
vision of the scale 
of points in the 
Standard, all Stand- 
ard breeding and 
judging in America 
is based on the prin- 
ciple of Equality of 
Value in Characters. 
Sections and char- 
acters do not neces- 
sarily correspond, 
but in this matter 
the ideas about prim- 
itive characters de- 
termined the more 
advanced ideas of 
the values of sec- 
tions among a group 
o f breeders and 
judges who took a 
different view of 
the value of charac- 
ters. 

It was shown that the Brahmas which furnished the 
basis of arrangement of the official score card were given 
10 detail sections, and the three general sections made 
13 in all. The first problem in making a strictly deci- 
mal score-card system was to reduce these thirteen sec- 
tions on the score card to 10. This was accomplished 
by omitting "symmetry" as superfluous; by combining 
"weight" and "condition" as one section (on the card) ; 
and by making two sections of the head and appendages 
instead of three. No good reason, other than that it 
arbitrarily met the requirements of the plan, could be 
given for considering weight and condition as one sec- 
tion corresponding to the detailed sections; and this 
created a prejudice against the plan from the outset. In 
all the other sections the 10 points allotted to a section 




IIEXRY LEE 



162 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



were equally divided between "Form" and "Color." 
Thus: 

Decimal Scale 

Weight and Condition Weight 5 Condition 5 Total 10 

Comb and Crest Form S Color S 10 

Head with Adjuncts "5 " S 10 

Neck . 5 " S 10 

Back "5 "5 " 10 

Breast "5 "5 10 

Body — including fluff 5 S 10 

Wings " S "5 " 10 

Tail " 5 " 5 " 10 

Legs and Feet "5 " 5 10 

Total 50 50 100 

The advantages claimed for this division of sections 
and points were that applyng it equally to all breeds and 
varieties did away with confusion and error arising out 
of differences in the "scales of points" for different breeds 
and varieties; and simplified and standardized the pro- 
cess of cutting for faults, giving the fractional cuts al- 
ways the same denominator or a series of denominators 
easily reduced to a common denominator at sight. 

The opposition to the decimal system of scoring was 
based principally on the theory that by the method of 
percentage cuts based on the numerical valuations given 
sections the same results could not possibly be obtained 
when two different "scales of points" were used. This 
would have been the result if the percentage system were 
actually used in both cases. The truth was that it was not 
used in either. In demonstrating the difference in the 
use of the two "scales of points" when the percentage 
method of estimating the values of cuts is used, the 
authors of the "Philosophy of Judging" showed that in a 
certain case where a bird scored in the customary man- 
ner had scored 89 the application of the decimal scale 
of points of the same percentages of defect as were in- 
dicated in the cuts on the official card would have given 
the bird a score of 90. But in the subsequent chapters 
where the lists of cuts for common faults in many dif- 
ferent breeds and varieties are given they abandon the 
percentage idea and give lists and scales of SPECIFIC 
CUTS, except that occasionally a remark is made calling 
attention to differences that would exist if the percentage 
system was applied to the different "scales of points." 
Their lists of cuts are simply the customary specific cuts 
which had come into use in judging originally intended 
to be on a basis of percentages on the Standard "scales 
cf points," but which — as has been pointed out — developed 
on a simple basis of specific cuts simply because the other 
plan is entirely too cumbersome to be practical. 

That is the reason why, while theoretically the scores 
given by the two systems should be different, and those 
on the decimal score card sometimes higher and sometimes 
lower than the others, according to the difference in the 
"scales of points," most of the judges who used both cards 
scored birds the same by either, while where differences 
did exist they did not correspond to differences in the 
"scales of points," but the scores by the decimal sys- 
tem regularly ran a little higher than by the other. The 
real cause of this may be described as mechanical. There 
were six more spaces in which to mark cuts on the regu- 
lation card, and unless a judge was keeping this in mind, 
and carefully uniting his cuts in the sections which on 
the decimal card covered the points for a larger number 
of sections on the other card, he was quite apt to fail to 
record all the cuts that he should. 



As originator and principal advocate of the Decimal 
Score Card Mr. Felch tried first to have it substituted 
for the other. This precipitated a long and sharp con- 
troversy, in which examples of poor judging under both 
score-card systems were so thoroughly exploited that 
general confidence in the value of any score-card method 
was greatly impaired; but the deciding argument with 
most of those who had to vote on the question of re- 
cognition of the decimal system both when the design was 
to make it the official system, and afterward when all 
that was asked was equal recognition, always rested 
on the assumption that the existing "scales of points" in 
the Standard were the actual basis of score-card judging, 
and that the cuts for defects were scientifically computed 
in percentages of the values of the sections. 

The instruction to make cuts in percentages of the 
values in the "scales of points" disappeared from the 
Standard in the 1905 edition, simjultaneously with the re- 
cognition of comparison judging as a method having the 
approval of the American Poultry Association, and with 
the issue of a substantial list of instructions for cutting 
for defects on the scale of specific cuts in common use in 
score-card judging. A very short list of these had ap- 
peared in the 1898 Standard. The extension of that list 
and the recognition given comparison judging in the 
next edition made the retention of the theory of percent- 
age cuts so palpably absurd that it was omitted, though 
the idea that the values in the various "scales of points" 
are the fundamental factor in judging is still retained 
and emphasized. 

The Actual Process of Score-Card Judging 

In the original method of scoring poultry by giving 
a few credit points for excellence, comparison of differ- 
ent degrees of excellence in the birds competing led to the 
adoption of a range of values in credits in the favored 
features which was in most cases from 1 to 2 or 3. In 
the Halsted Standard of 1867, out of a total of 208 items 
in lists of points, there are only 28 instances where the 
highest credit exceeds 3; and, in most of these, giving 
a point a possible credit of 4, 5 or 6 plainly happened be- 
cause of the small number of points considered, and the 
obvious inconsistency of giving certain features in one 
breed more credits than the same features in another. 
There was really no occasion to make the points total 
15, unless they were used as the basis of awards of sweep- 
stake prizes. But the usual method in scoring favored 
features, or features really given miuch consideration, 
was with a short series of unit credits. 

When the plan of deducting from an assumed score 
standing for perfection in the specimen, and in every 
section and character, was adopted, the same principle 
of a series of marks was employed but inverted — giving 
cuts instead of credits. Consideration of the possible 
numbers of these cuts, and of the fact that in the sys- 
tem of marking performance from which the system 
of score-card judging was derived a mark of 85 to 90 
or a little better stood for highly creditable work, will 
show why cuts on a scale of Vz rather than on a scale of 
1 were early adopted. It is often said that the customary 
score for the ordinary good bird is too high — that it does 
not allow for the differences in quality between these 
and the very superior specimens which are still not per- 
fect. I think that this view is due to putting a little too 
much emphasis on the idea that the perfection indicated 
in the Standard is unattainable, and to scoring the best 
birds in the strongest competition too low, and also 
perhaps in part to a lack of appreciation of the fact that 



PHILOSOPHY OF JUDGING AND RELATION OF JUDGING SYSTEMS 




VETERAN BREEDERS, EXHIBITORS AND JUDGES 
First row, left to right: J. Y. Bicknell, I. K. Pelch, Philander Williams, Geo. O. Brown. Second row: Sharp Butterfield, John 
Glasgow, Henry Hales, Wm. McNeil. Third row: Henry Ball, Geo. W. Mitchell, Geo. V. Fletcher, Geo. E. Peer. Fourth row: C. A 
Emry, Ben S. Myers, N. R. Nye, C. H. Rhodes 



164 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



the nearer a specimen approaches the score of 100 the 
greater the real value of each point and fraction of a point 
in its score. 

But the thing we have to consider in coming to an 
understanding of the fixing of a certain scale of specific 
cuts in score-card judging is that when this plan was de- 
vised and put into use it would have been a positively 
foolish' thing to adopt a scale of cuts for defects by which 
if all faults were considered critically, as American breed- 
ers and judges were disposed to consider them, the best 
specimens of the day would have scored away below the 
figures which commonly represented excellent quality. 
It must be kept in mind also that the system of scoring, 
and the ordinary "scales of points" were not developed 
in connection with a "Standard of Perfection." Through- 
out the thirteen years following the appearance of the 
first edition the American standard for poultry was the 
"Standard of Excellence," and on the descriptions so 
considered the customary cuts established were 
appropriate. 

Lack of familiarity with the real origin of the Amer- 
ican system of scoring would appear to be the reason for 
its failure to find acceptance in England. Even so great 
an authority and so able a student and writer as Lewis 
Wright was apparently unable fully to understand the 
method or to grasp its principles, though by continued 
study of problems of judging he did eventually come to 
recognize the American system as better suited to com- 
mon practice than the methods he worked out by apply- 
ing his first ideas of it to the scales of specific cuts as 
commonly used by the best English judges in comparison 
judging where the only object is to rank the competing 
birds properly. In this it is immaterial whether the marks 
be called credits or cuts: the only difference is that when 
they are called credits the highest mark wins, and when 
they are called cuts the lowest mark wins. It is simply 
a question of the point of view taken in marking. 

On the basis of the specific cuts customary in Eng- 
land, Mr. Wright found that 100 points as a total were 
not enough for all the cuts that could be made. So he 
tried to find a total that was high enough to cover all 
possible cuts. The details and direct results of his ob- 
servations do not concern us here as they made no im- 
pression upon American ideas of judging except as ac- 
quaintance with his ideas may have intensified in some 
minds the idea that the total of possible cuts in any sec- 
tion should correspond exactly with the value given the 
section in the "scale of points," and if the cuts exceed that 
or even equal it, the judge is in the absurd position of en- 
tirely eliminating the whole section. Again and again 
persons calling attention to such cases, or possible cases, 
in discussing the subject have said "This takes away the 
entire section: you have cut off the head, or the wings, 
or the tail or the feet — as the case might be: the process 
by which you did this is ridiculous. If your total of 100 
points represents value, and the points as allotted section 
by section represent values; then in a valid system of scor- 
ing for defects from the ideal bird desired by the fancier, 
you must always provide that when you have cut for all 
the faults from the fancier's point of view — when you have 
found the lowest possible score for Standard values — you 
mfst still have left a valuation which represents the actual 
commercial value of the bird for other purposes." 

This idea is in harmony with the view of the relations 
of utility -and fancy that has always predominated in 
America. Wright's idea that the points in the schedule 
were points of excellence as distinct from points of util- 



ity, and that the essential thing was to have points enough 
to cover the possible cuts, is in accord with the English 
fancier's attitude that considers fancy apart from utility. 
Both ideas contain principles that are applicable to a con- 
sistent scheme of judging by score card; but neither is 
correct as interpreted and applied. We shall find as 
we proceed that in the evolution of ideas of judging the 
right applications of the principles are being worked out. 
The Return to Comparison Judging 

There were from the first adoption of the score- 
card system of judging some judges who did not like it. 
When the advocates of score-card judging began to 
quarrel among themselves, each section pointing out the 
errors and absurdities in the work and ideas of the 
other, they greatly helped the efforts of those disposed 
to return to the comparison method. The situation en- 
couraged comparison judging propaganda, and the increas- 
ing difficulties of making awards in large classes at the 
leading shows when all the birds in the class had to be 
examined in detail eventually furnished the occasion for 
substituting comparison for score-card judging at the 
Madison Square Garden in 1891. 

After the comparison method came into quite general 
use at the large shows and at many of the smaller shows, 
its advocates began to represent its first adoption by the 
big shows as based upon the general superiority of the 
system. The truth is that the determining point was the 
time required to make the awards of prizes. This was stat- 
ed in the announcement of the first Boston Show by 
the present association. It had also been stated by 
Mr. Robert Colgate, president of the New York Poul- 
try Association, when the announcement was made 
in the poultry press in September, 1890, that the next 
show at the Garden would be judged by comparison. 
The exact words of his statement were: "as by 
this method the judging can be g*)t through with and the 
prizes awarded much more quickly, thus obviating what 
seemes to me a very just cause of complaint." The cause 
of complaint which brought matters to this head was 
that at the preceding Garden Show some of the judges 
did not complete their work until Friday, the day be- 
fore the close of the show. 

The adoption of the comparison method of judging 
at the leading shows in the East, and the preference of 
some judges for it, the obvious faults of the score-card 
method, and the feeling of many leading breeders that 
it was immaterial which method was used, provided the 
awards were placed right, operated to give the comparison 
method a good standing and to prolong the general con- 
troversy in which every party was most diligent in show- 
ing up the mistakes of others, and the only really con- 
structive efforts to better the situation were the "explan- 
atory" score cards that appeared from time to time, and 
the painfully slow progress of the Standard toward the 
principles of equality of characters, and of specific cuts 
for faults. The explanatory score-card methods were 
mostly too cumbersome for general use. 

Although the comparison method was easily rees- 
tablished in the large shows, the American Poultry 
Association never gave it any recognition, either direct 
or indirect, in the Standard until the 1905 edition. Its 
attitude since that time is most aptly described as tol- 
eration rather than approval. The instructions to judges 
using the comparison system consist largely of admoni- 
tions against yielding to the tendency to slackness, to 
personal interpretation of the Standard, to partiality in 
considering different characters and sections, and in gen- 



PHILOSOPHY OF JUDGING AND RELATION OF JUDGING SYSTEMS 



165 






PROMINENT BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS OP ASIATICS 
First row, left to right: J. W. Shaw, H. N. Rollins, John Rumbold, C. P. Nettleton — all Light Brahma. Second row: J. D. Nevins, 
W. W. Browning, A. Anderson, C. W. Case — Buff Cochin, except Anderson, White and Partridge. Third row: Chas. I. Balch, Hervey 0. 
Wood, W. A. Hendrickson, C. W. Everitt — all Light Brahma. Fourth row: C. A. Ballou — Dark Brahma; D. P. Shove, J. P. Keating, O. L. 
Putnam — Light Brahma 



166 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



eral to cautions against the errors most peculiar to that 
method of judging, and which the score-card method of 
judging was expressly devised to remedy. These instruc- 
tions even go so far as to insist in a note at the conclusion 
that: "Under the comparison system judges must deduct 
the full valuations of the cuts in all sections, where a 
specified cut is made under the heading of "Cutting foi 
Defects.' " 

Thus in effect the American Poultry Association de- 
mands that under certain circumstances, which will oc- 
cur very frequently in practically every class and com- 
petition, the judge using the comparison system shall 
partially score the specimens in which certain faults ap- 
pear. As the list of such faults now numbers about fifty, 
it is perfectly obvious that if a comparison judge follows 
this instruction he might better use the score-card method 
straight and apply it to every section. Nothing but con- 
fusion could result from a mixture of the systems in 
judging a class and applying them in this irregular man- 
ner. It has already been intimated that the systems ought 
to be combined to make one efficient and consistent 
system, and the possibilities of that will be treated in the 
next chapter; but to attempt to combine them at hap- 
hazard, with each judge determining for himself the 
proportions of each system to be used is impractical. 

Considering the score-card and comparison methods 
of judging AS THEY ARE, and in their historical and 
logical connections in this country we find: 

1 — That comparison judging is the primary method of 
judging the relative merits of different individuals of the 
same variety, and that it originated prior to the establish- 
ment of standards. 

2 — That the occasion for the making of standards arises 
from the inconsistency of judging with the best specimen 
in the competition, or the image of the best specimen he 
has seen in the judge's mind, as the standard of measure- 
ments. 

3 — That when a standard is made, describing each 
breed and variety in detail, the methods of marking, or 
scoring, which before seemed suitable, are found inad- 
equate, and it becomes necessary to devise methods pro- 
viding for a simple, consistent and practical method of 
recording the values of characters. 

4 — That to the present time the only method meeting 
these requirements that has been developed is the 
score-card method of making specific cuts, on a simple 
scale, from an assumed valuation of 100 — representing 
the ideal of excellence in each breed and variety. 

5 — That the adoption of a Standard of ideal excellence, 
and of a careful and thorough system of score-card judg- 
ing to be used in applying it, operates to constantly im- 
prove the quality in every point given special attention, 
and also to increase the number of such points, with the 
result that the process of judging, by any method, becomes 
slower and more difficult. 

6 — That when the improvement in quality, and the 
increase in size of classes reached the point where the 
judging at shows often extended far beyond the time lim- 
its fixed for the completion of judging, show managers 
returned to the comparison method as the method by 
•which the judging could be done within the customary 
time limit. 

7 — That while this plan at first accomplished the de- 
sired object, with further improvements in the quality 
of standard-bred exhibition poultry and increases in the 
size of classes, and with the values of winnings at im- 



portant shows increasing so that the responsibilities as- 
well as the difficulties of the judge's work have increased,, 
the comparison method has in turn become inadequate, 
and the requirements of good judging demand the re- 
turn to the score-card method. 

8 — That, as in the first instance, comparison judges- 
have made private systems of markings for their own use 
in making awards, these being generally of such a char- 
acter that they are comprehensible only to the judge and 
those to whom he gives the key to his system. 

9 — That this method of judging gives the individual 
judge more latitude than is consistent with a reasonable- 
uniformity in judging and the maintenance of the au- 
thority of the Standard. 

10 — That the practice of using the score-card method 
for minor shows, and the comparison method for the 
larger shows at which the best breeders compete and the 
best birds are shown is detrimental to the development 
of a better system and of better practice in score-card 
judging; because it fails to provide the proper basis for 
the application of the Standard by the score-card method,. 
— recorded judgments of the best birds — in the strongest 
competitions by the most competent judges. 

11 — That the use of the comparison system at the 
major shows deprives every exhibitor of a bird that though, 
failing to win a prize (perhaps by a single small point 
which the judge himself hesitated over) was substantially 
of the same quality as the winners of all credit for his- 
showing, while the use of the score-card system gives all 
exhibitors due credit for the merit of every bird shown. 

12 — That the use of the comparison system tends to- 
substitute for the Standard as the measure of excellence 
in poultry, the reputation of the show and of the judge,, 
often giving the benefit of these to very ordinary speci- 
mens winning in weak competition or in no competition. 

13 — That the score-card system as used does not 
meet the requirements of judging in close competition,, 
because the method of using it does not provide regularly 
for the correction of the normal errors occurring in its- 
application. 

14 — That an efficient, consistent and dependable sys- 
tem of judging must necessarily combine the features of 
the comparison and score-card methods. 

15 — That under existing conditions of competition, the- 
importance of efficiency in judging and the values of re- 
corded judgments on the classes at the best shows to the 
exhibitors and to all breeders interested in knowing the 
quality of the birds and of the competition at those shows, 
should be considered before the advantages to the mana- 
gers of the show and the convenience to visitors at the 
show of having the awards made quickly. 

16— That the idea that the values of large shows 
judged by comparison to exhibitors who do not win, and 
to the interested poultry breeders throughout the country 
can be secured to them by adequate press reports supply- 
ing what the methods of judging fail to give is a fallacy, 
because the press has its own limitations in the handling; 
of show reports. 

17— That the one practical way to give worthy ex- 
hibitors failing to win prizes the benefits to which they 
are entitled is to give them the opportunities to know- 
how closely their birds compared with the Standard and 1 
with the winners, and to make any proper use of this 
information in their advertising and their literature and 
correspondence. 



PHILOSOPHY OF JUDGING AND RELATION OF JUDGING SYSTEMS 



167 




PROMINENT POULTRY JUDGES 
First row, left to right: Charles McClave, Adam Thompson, F. H. Shellabarger, D. T. Heimlich. Second row: J. F. Crangle, T. 
F. McGrew, Richard Oke, J. H. Drevenstedt. Third row: Chas. T. Cornman, W. Theo Wittman-, J. Harry Wolsieffer, F. Bohrer. Fourth 
row: Thomas F. Rigg, W. R. Graham, J. C. Punderford. D. J. Lambert 



CHAPTER XIII 
Logical Developments in Judging Practice 

True Character and Relations of Scales of Points and Scales of Cuts — The Use and Misuse of Disqualifications — How 

Condition Should Be Considered in Judging — Correct Adjustment of Scales of Cuts and Consistency in 

Judging Dependent Upon the General Use of a Scientific Simple System of Scoring 



IN the two preceding chapters we have traced the 
evolution of methods of judging with due recognition 
of both good and bad features in all systems used, 
but with most emphasis on the faults and conditions 
which have prevented the development of a single sys- 
tem of universal applicability and permanent value. In 
this chapter the true status of several things that have 
not been rightly understood will be shown, the full ap- 
plication of various progressive movements and tenden- 
cies indicated, and the logical lines of further develop- 



the "scale of points" is basic in the Standard and a prime 
factor in judging. 

Scales of Credits — "Scales of Points" — and Scales of Cuts 

Some observant readers may have noted that through- 
out this book the phrase "scale of points" has always 
been used in quotation marks, indicating the existence of 
a reason for treating it as an expression not used in 
the common meanings of the words contained in it. 
That reason is that the word scale in this connection is 






PROMINENT SOUTHERN AND PACIFIC COAST JUDGES 
ight: P. J. Marshall, H. B. Savage, D. W. Owen, Walter Burton. Second 



ment made clear. It is appropriate that the author should 
say here that he has never approached the study of judg- 
ing from the standpoint of any idea or theory of his own 
as to the correct method, or the best method. His ob- 
ject has always been to learn what he could of the methods 
in use, to examine their results impartially, to find out 
what features in ordinary practice have permanent val- 
ue, and to consider how these can be united in better 
methods. In studying the subject with this in view he 
has been strongly impressed by the evident tendency of 
practice to develop along correct lines, and has noted 
that the greatest obstacle to natural progress is false theo- 
ries that have been accepted without even the form of 
a demonstration. The greatest of these is the idea that 



used erroneously, and this erroneous use of it is at the 
root of general misunderstanding of matters relating to the 
judging of poultry by the Standard. 

A scale is a graduated series of numbers, measures, 
tones, etc., in which no two members have the same 
value, and in which the difference in value of members in 
consecutive positions is determined on some fixed 
principle. 

The term "scale of points" was not used in the earli- 
est standards. In them the headings for the tabulated 
points were simply "Points in Games" — or whatever the 
breed might be. The expression "Scale of Points" first 
appears in the 1875 edition of the Standard of Excellence 
and there it is used only with the tables for Buff, Black 



LOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN JUDGING PRACTICE 



169 



and White Cochins. All the tables for other breeds and 
varieties have the old form heading. In the 1883 Stand- 
ard the term "Scale of Points" is used all through, and 
from that time we find the idea implied in the proper and 
common meaning of the word scale attached to the list of 
points, and the fallacy which it bred becoming firmly 
established as a supposed cardinal principle in judging. 
The lists of points never had the characteristics of 
"scales" except in so far as judges might graduate their 



individual scales of cuts and by degrees brought about 
first general use of a common scale in which the unit 
of difference is a cut of J^, and then by degrees the ac- 
ceptance of this scale by the American Poultry Association 
as the Standard SCALE OF CUTS which judges are 
instructed to apply. In the latest edition of the Standard 
the list of specific cuts for defects carries l /z as the unit 
or factor in the scale of cuts, but in the general instruc- 
tions to judges it is stipulated that no cut of less than J4 






PROMINENT WESTERN JUDGES 

C. Branch, J. C. Johnston, A. B. Shaner. Second row: F. L. Piatt, D. E. Hale, O. 
ran Winkle, Russell F. Palmer, W. M. Coats, V. O. Hobbs 



decisions when giving credits on the basis of the lists 
totaling each 15 points. Where this was done it might 
be said that the judge had his scale of credits. Nor was 
there any feature of score-card judging as provided for 
in the 1875 Standard that could properly be described 
as a "scale." It was the development of a system of 
specific cuts in score-card judging that created various 



shall be made. That is as fine a scale as most persons 
can use in scoring by the book and their mental stand- 
ard, but in deciding ties by comparison, and then making 
the cuts show the difference further division of the unit 
— for the particular case — would follow as a matter of 
course. 

The logical use of a "scale of points" in a score-card 



170 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



system of judging is seen when we note that in taking 
points — as needed elsewhere — from the general sections, 
Symmetry, Weight and Condition, in the matter of 
weight the American Poultry Association stopped when 
the cuts for weight that disqualified a specimen equaled 
the points allotted to weight in the"scale of points." 
This is. a practical application of Wright's view that Points 
should represent the difference between the valuation 
placed on the ideal and the lowest valuation of a spec- 
imen or of a section that was recognized as conforming 
to the Standard specifications. The principle as now ap- 
plied to weight is capable of application to other sec- 
tions on a basis that will solve in a logical and just way 



but it arose at a very early stage of the history of poultry 
exhibitions. It has its origin in the theory of the inequali- 
ty of the value of characters, and in the ideas of those who 
are partial to particular characters and sections, and — 
therefore — naturally lean the other way when faults which 
seem to them particularly objectionable are concerned. 

Most of the disqualifications fixed in the Standard 
are manifestly reasonable. Nearly all of the disqualifica- 
tions in the first Standards were for unsightly things 
which anyone at all would notice. But it is interesting 
to find that in the Rouen Duck, which has the color pat- 
tern of the Wild Mallard, and in the early days of the poul- 
try fancy was one of the few varieties of poultry that was 




PROMINENT BLACK MINORCA BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS 
left to right: C. J. Andruss, Geo. H. Northup, Chas. G. Pape, L. C. Mishler. Second 



S. T. Campbell, Prank Mo 



one of the most difficult problems in judging — the best 
method of determining and dealing with disqualifications. 

Disqualifications — Their Use and Misuse 

The matter of disqualifications has been more fruit- 
ful of controversy and more productive of trouble and 
dissatisfaction than all other phases of judging com- 
bined. The bone of contention is the question of the jus- 
tice and wisdom, of disqualification for trivial superficial 
faults, when gross faults, and sometimes very important 
faults are allowed to pass with such cuts for defect as they 
merit in the opinion of the judge. The trouble is aggra- 
vated by the relation of small superficial faults to the 
practice of faking. 

The impression prevails widely that disqualification 
for trivial faults is a comparatively recent development 
due to advanced ideas of quality and closeness of com- 
petition. Those things have no doubt affected the ap- 
plication of the practice of disqualifying for slight faults, 



really good in color when judged by a critical standard. 
"Bills, clear yellow, dark green, blue or lead color," a 
disqualification read in 1867 just as it does in 1921. The 
greenish yellow bill desired in the male, and the brownish 
orange bill desired in the female, are certainly more 
handsome with the standard colors, but when the Stand- 
ard calls for such mixed colors in bills in birds with the 
complex color patterns of the Rouen drake and duck these 
other colors are bound to appear frequently in otherwise 
very fine specimens, and a rigid disqualification for a 
normal color variation is absurd. To disqualify a dark 
green bill when the Standard calls for a modified shade of 
the same color is especially absurd. This strictness in 
applying the Standard for color in the case of the Rouen 
Duck originates in giving extraordinary attention to the 
bills of ducks — making a fad of color of bill. There were 
not many of these extreme disqualifications in the first 
Standards, but the precedents for the rigid use of petty 
disqualifications were there. 



LOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN JUDGING PRACTICE 



171 






PROMINENT WOMEN EXHIBITORS 

First row, left to right: Mrs. Nettie Metcalf, Buckeyes; Mrs. Louisa White. White Rocks; Mrs. Pearl Cuddebach. Turkeys; Miss 
Frances E Wheeler Pekin Ducks. Second row: Mrs. E. W. Mahood, R. I. Reds; Mrs. W. G. Robinson, Light Brahmas; Mrs. Geo. 
Russell. Brown Leghorns; Mrs. W. G. Curd, Barred Rocks. Third row: Mrs. A. G. F. Stice, Barred Rocks; Mrs. Donna Hanly, Par- 
tridge Wvandottes; Miss Norma Witheft, White China Geese; Mrs. Eli Fowler, Bronze Turkeys. Fourth row: Mrs. J. T. McMahan, 
Bronze Turkeys; Mrs. Dan C. Amos, Turkeys; Mrs. Clias. V. Keeler, White Wyandottes; Miss Eva M. Culp, Bourbon Red Turkeys 



172 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



And the disqualifications that cause most controversy 
are generally of the same character, though mostly of 
later origin. To appreciate the status of the ordinary color 
disqualifications when they were first applied, we must con- 
sider both the fact that most of the color varieties were 
recently made, and had some very bad faults, and 
the fact that breeders were not nearly as critical as they 
are now. Many, indeed, were not critical at all, and would 
entirely overlook foreign feathers in plumage that to a 
trained eye were conspicuous and unsightly. We must 
consider too the attitude of the breeders, exhibitors and 
judges of the time toward the removal of disqualifications. 
According to the testimony of those who have been closely 
associated with developments along this line from very 
early dates, the original object of making such faults as 
false-colored feathers in parts of the plumage where they 
could be easily removed without spoiling outline or sur- 
face, and small stubs and down on the shanks of clean- 
legged breeds not far removed from feather-legged an- 
cestry, disqualifications, was as much to punish an ex- 
hibitor FOR NOT REMOVING THEM BEFORE 
BRINGING THE BIRD TO A SHOW as for the pur- 
pose of forcing them to stricter selection to eliminate 
such faults by "breeding them out." 

The ethics of the question have been discussed in 
Chapter III. Here we are interested in the best method 
of dealing with ALL FAULTS on the samle general 
principle and without taking an arbitrary attitude in any 
case. It is only by finding and applying such a principle 
that the problem of disqualifications can be solved. As 
it is now, a tiny speck of down between the toes of a 
specimen of a clean-legged breed disqualifies the entire 
pen — no matter how good otherwise: while every bird 
in the pen could be so poor in quality that no good judge 
would give it a second glance, and yet not a bird in it 



have a disqualification. The disqualification for down 
is an extreme one, but there are others that come very 
near it. The disqualification of pens for the disqualifi- 
cation of a single bird is the extreme example, but the 
principle is just the same in comparison of cases of indi- 
vidual specimens. Also it continues to be the same when 
we compare faults in different characters and different 
sections of a specimen. 

There is an inconsistency in "capital punishment'' for 
slight faults, while other serious faults simply reduce the 
grade of a specimen, that no amount of sophistical argu- 
ment to justify the "law" can explain away. The common 
assertion that the little faults severely punished as dis- 
qualifications are peculiarly objectionable, and especially 
persistent in breeding is not sound, and is not borne out 
by the practice of breeders in the use of birds having 
such small faults; nor is it in accord with the principle 
of equality of importance of characters and of faults, 
which it has been shown over and over in this discussion 
has had a most persistent influence upon the develop- 
ment of judging practice and of the Standard of 
Perfection. 

The rule that may be formulated from established 
principles and practice and that will apply equitably, and 
with the uniform tendency to all-round improvement in 
standard poultry is this— WHENEVER THE TOTAL 
OF CUTS FOR DEFECTS IN ANY SECTION 
KEACHES THE VALUE PLACED ON THAT SEC- 
TION IN THE SCALE OF POINTS THE SPECIMEN 
SHALL BE DISQUALIFIED. 

The application of this rule does not at all interfere 
with the rule requiring that a specimen must reach a 
certain score to be entitled to a prize. Before considering 
it further we must take up the matter of the division of 
characters in sections. 



TABLE NO. 1— SHOWING THE ALLOTMENT OP POINTS TO SECTIONS IN PLYMOUTH ROCKS, LEGHORNS AND BRAHMAS IN 

EDITIONS OF THE STANDARD 1875-1915 



Expiauation- 
and the number o 


-Where the points allotted a section 
t shape in the column under S. and 


ire divided for 
for color unde 


hape and color 
C. 


the total is given 




the 


coh 


inn 


directly 


unc 


er T, 




Pt 


K^ 


c c 


E 
o 
o 


Head. 


Beak. 


Eyes. 


Wattles and Neck. 
Ear-lobes. 


Wings. 


Bacl< 




Tail 




Breast. 


Body a 
Fluff 


id 


Legs and 
Toes. 




$1 


Sfc 


Si 


S C T 


S C T 


S C T 


S C 


T 


S 


C T 


s 


C T 


s 


C 


T 


B 


C 


T 


s 


C 


T 


S 


C 


T 


S 


C T 


Plymouth 
Rocks | 
1875 1 12 
American 


14 


9 


8 


7 








6 




8 




6 






6 






6 






-(1 


o>- 








8 


Class 
1890 
1898 
1905 
1910 
1915 


8 
8 
K 
4 
4 


6 
fi 
6 
4 

4 


<; 

6 

4 
4 
4 


8 

8 

8 

8 

8 


3 3 6 
3 3 6 
3 3 6 
2 2 4 
2 2 4 


2 2 4 
2 2 4 


2 2 4 
2 2 4 


2 4 
2 3 
2 2 


6 
6 

6 
5 
4 


4 
4 
3 
3 
4 


6 10 
6 10 
6 9 

5 8 

6 10 


4 
4 
6 

4 
4 


4 8 
4 8 

4 10 

5 9 

6 10 


4 
5 
6 
6 
5 


4 
5 
6 
5 
5 


8 
10 
12 
11 
10 


4 

4 
4 
5 
5 


4 

4 
5 
5 
5 


8 
8 
9 

10 
10 


5 
5 
5 
6 
5 


5 
5 
5 
5 
5 


10 
10 
10 

11 

10 


5 
3 
3 
5 
5 


3 
3 
3 
3 
3 


a 

6 
6 
8 
8 


3 
3 
3 


8 

8 

3 6 

3 6 

3 6 


Decimal 
Scale | 


5 


5 


10 


— (T-10 


S-5 C-5)-r- 




5 


5 10 


5 


5 10 


5 


5 


to 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


10 


6 


5 


10 


5 


5 10 


Leghorns 
1875 i 10 
Mediterane 


10 
an 


10 


15 


7 








15 




5 




5 






5 






6 






— 


5)- 








6 


Class 
1890 
1898 
1905 
1910 
1915 


8 
8 
8 
4 
4 


5 
10 
8 

4 
4 


6 
5 

5 
4 
4 


10 

10 
10 
10 
10 


4 4 8 
2 2 4 
2 4 6 
2 4 6 
2 4 6 


2 2 4 
2 2 4 


2 2 4 
2 2 4 


4 6 
4 6 


10* 

10* 

10* 

10 

10 


3 

3 
3 
3 
3 


4 7 
4 7 
4 7 

4 7 

5 8 


4 

4 
4 
4 
4 


4 8 
4 8 
4 8 
4 . 8 
6 10 


3 
3 
3 
5 
5 


4 
4 
4 
4 
5 


7 
7 

7 
9 
10 


4 
4 

4 
6 
5 


4 

4 
4 
4 
4 


8 
8 
8 
10 
9 


6 
6 
6 
5 
4 


4 
4 
4 
4 
4 


10 
10 
10 
9 
8 


3 
3 
8 
3 

3 


3 
3 

8 
2 
2 


6 
6 
6 
5 
5 


3 

2 


7 

7 

7 

8 6 

2 4 


Decimal 
Scale | 


5 


5 


10 


— (' 


'■10 


S-5 C 


-5) — 




5 


6 10 


5 


6 10 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


10 


5 


6 10 


* Wattles 4. Ear-Lobes 6. 














































Light | 
Brahma 
1875 i 10 
Asiatic 


13 


8 


8 


5 








5 




10 




8 






7 






7 






7* 






5* 




7 


Class 
1890 
1898 
1905 
1910 
1915 


8 
8 
-8 

4 

4 


6 

6 

6 
6 
4 


6 
6 
5 
4 
4 


a 

8 
8 
8 

8 


3 3 6 
3 3 6 
3 3 6 
3 3 6 
2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 
2 2 4 


2 3 

2 2 


6 
6 
5 
5 

4 


4 
4 
4 
4 
4 


6 10 
6 10 
6 10 
6 9 
6 10 


4 
4 
4 

4 
4 


4 8 
4 8 
4 8 
4 8 
6 10 


4 
4 

4 
6 
6 


4 
5 
4 
5 
4 


8 

9 

8 

11 

10 


4 
4 
4 
4 

5 


4 
5 
4 
5 
5 


8 

9 

8 

9 

10 


5 
5 
5 
5 
6 


5 
5 
5 
5 
4 


10 
10 
10 
10 
10 


5 

5 
5 
5 
6 


3 
3 

3 
8 
8 


8 
8 

8 
8 
8 


8 


8 
8 
8 
8 
8 8 


Decimal 
Scale | 


5 


5 


10 


— ( 


M0 


S-5 C 


-5) — 




5 


5 10 


5 


5 10 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


1° 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 10 


* Br 


>asl 


and 


bo 


dy 7 


Fluff £ 















































LOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN JUDGING PRACTICE 



173 



Natural and Technical Division by Sections 

In looking at any complex structure or organism, we 
naturally observe it as constituted of certain parts which 
the eye and mind note separately as well as collectively. 
Thus in any bird we note the head, neck, back, breast, 
body, wings, tail and legs, as principal parts. As far as 
it goes this natural division, which any normal mind would 
make intuitively, corresponds to the technical divisions 
as made in the Standard descriptions and on score cards 
to be used in judging. It differs from them in not so 
fully analyzing the head and head points where these 
are abnormally developed — as to some extent they are 
in nearly all improved breeds of fowls. 

The regulation score card makes three divisions of 
the head parts, and the decimal score card makes two. 
The regulation "scale of points" gives to all head 
parts a total of 24 points: the decimal "scale of points" 
gives to all head parts a total of 20. It can be seen at'a 
glance at Table 2, that simply as a result of arrang- 
ing the number of points allotted to different sections 
to cover the value of comimon combinations of specific 
cuts in them, the points given to sections in the regulation 
"scale of points" for the American and Asiatic classes 
have been gradually brought to the decimal score card 
totals for shape and color, and further that the tendency 
is more and more to bring them to the decimal score 
card idea of an equal division of the points given a sec- 
tion between shape and color. 

The more closely possible divisions are studied, the 
more plainly it will appear that the regulation card gives 
more than the appropriate proportion of points to head 
parts; that the decimal score card division which gives 
all head parts twice as many points as the other natural 
sections is a better division; and that the division of the 
head parts for the decimal scale of points and score card 
is a bad one. By this division the comb, or the comtb and 
crest are given the same number of points as head, beak, 
eyes, face, ear lobes, and wattles, or wattles and beard. 

A more equable division is to consider comb and 
wattles, or crest and beard — with which the comb and 
wattles are usually rudimentary or small, as one sec- 
tion, and the head and ear lobes as another. This sep- 
aration of "Wattles and Ear Lobes" will no doubt at 
first appear inappropriate to many who have always con- 



sidered them as grouped together in descriptions and in 
judging, but it is more appropriate than the present divi- 
sion, for comb and wattles regularly correspond in size, 
color and texture quite closely, or at least it is the intent 
of the Standard that they should do so, but the ear lobes 
have a peculiar structure of their own, may be, and often 
are different in color from comb and wattles, and the face 
tends to take the color and to some extent the character 
of the skin of the ear lobes. 

Consideration of Size and Weight in Judging 

Size is the most important attribute of breed char- 
acter, and the only measure of size for practical use in 
judging poultry is weight, with condition taken into con- 
sideration. Size may be kept at any desired standard, 
approximately, without a weight provision, as long as a 
breed is almost entirely in the hands of fanciers who have 
keen preceptions of type and symmetry. But we have now 
nearly half a century of experience with and observation 
of the state of different breeds that plainly shows that 
whenever a breed is widely distributed and becomes pop- 
ular with all classes of poultry keepers, the first essen- 
tial to the maintenance of the size and type regarded as 
ideal is very close adherence to an established standard 
of weight. Laxity in the use and application of weight 
standards is the first cause of confusion of somewhat 
similar breed types. 

In general, the standard weights for the different 
breeds, as fixed by the Americin Poultry Association as 
the ideal weights for the type and use of the breed, have 
been judiciously and wisely chosen. In fact, as to all 
ideals in American standards it may be said that the more 
severely one analyzes them, the more he is impressed 
with the good judgment in practical matters as well as in 
matters of taste that is shown in breed and variety de- 
scriptions or specifications. Some inconsistencies in Stand- 
ard weights can be found, but they are not of great im- 
portance. But in the matter of departures from standard 
weights the Standard has allowed, and now allows, far 
more latitude than is consistent with clear distinctions be- 
tween types and with the uniformity of size and weight 
which ought to exist in every standard breed. 

To appreciate the extent of the latitude which the 
Standard partly allows and partly gives occasion for, 
we must note that its method of treating variations from 



TABLE NO. 2— SHOWING THE ALLOTMENTS OP POINTS IN PRINCIPAL CLASSES IN THE 1915 STANDARD 



Explanal 


ion. 


— Where the points allotted a section are 


divided 


for 


shape an< 


color, the total 


18 given in 


the column directly under T, 


the number for shape in the column 


under 


3, and 


for color 


under C 


























, >, 


a«i 


ftj 


e 


Head. 


Beak. 


Eyes. 


Wattlesand Neck. 


Wings. 


Back. 


Tail. 


Breast. 


Body and 


I«egs and 


Crest 


i u 


Class. 




be.5 

Etc 








Ear-lobes. 




















Fluff. 


Toes. 






H 




so a 


5=5 


°-5 


5 


S C T 


S C T 


S C T 


S C 


T 


S C 


T 


S C 


T 


S C 


T 


S C T 


S C 


T 


S C 


T 


S C T 


s 


C T 


** £ 


Amer. 


4 


4 


4 


H 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


4 6 


10 


4 6 


10 


5 5 


10 


5 5 10 


5 5 


10 


5 3 


8 


3 3 6 








Asiatic 


4 


4 


4 


8 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


4 6 


10 


4 6 


10 


6 4 


10 


5 5 10 


6 4 


10 


5 3 


8 


3 3 6 








Med. 


4 


4 


4 


10 


4 2 6 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


4 6 


10 


5 3 


8 


4 6 


10 


5 5 


10 


5 4 9 


4 4 


8 


3 2 


S 


2 2 4 








Eng. 


4 


4 


4 


8 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


4 4 


8 


4 6 


10 


6 4 


10 


6 4 10 


6 4 


10 


5 3 


8 


5 3 8 








Polish 


4 


4 


4 


2 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


3 3 


6 


4 6 


10 


4 4 


8 


4 5 9 


4 4 


8 


3 3 


6 


2 2 4 


10 


5 15 




Habg. 


4 


4 


4 


10 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


5 5 


10 


4 4 


8 


4 6 


10 


5 5 


10 


4 6 10 


4 4 


8 


3 3 


6 


2 2 4 








French 


4 


4 


4 


4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


4 4 


8 


4 6 


10 


5 4 


9 


5 4 9 


6 4 


10 


3 3 


6 


2 2 4 


8 


4 12 




Cont. 


4 


4 


4 


8 


2 3 5 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


4 4 


8 


3 5 


8 


4 6 


10 


6 6 


12 


5 5 10 


4 5 


9 


3 3 


6 


2 2 4 








Games 


10* 


6 


2 


4 15 


4 


4 




2 


5 3 


8 


4 6 


10 


4 3 


7 


5 3 8 


4 3 


7 


4 3 


7 


10 4 14 






6 


Orien. 


4 | 4 


5 


6 


(T-5 S-3 C-2) 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


4 4 


8 


4 4 


8 


6 4 


10 


10 4 14 


4 4 


8 


4 4 


8 


4 4 8 






4 


Malavs 

Seb. 

Bant. 


10*12*5 


8 


— (T-ll S-5 


3-6) — 


2 2 


4 


3 3 


6 


4 4 


8 


3 3 


6 


3 .3 6 


3 3 


6 


2 2 


4 


3 3 6* 








4 


2 


4 


8 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


4 4 


8 


4 4 


8 


4 6 


10 


4 6 


10 


6 6 12 


5 5 


10 


4 4 


8 


2 4 4 








Miscel. 
Bant 
Pol. 
Bant. 


4 


2 


4 


8 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


t 6 


10 


4 6 


10 


6 4 


10 


5 5 10 


5 5 


10 


5 3 


8 


5 3 8 








4 


2 


4 


2 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 4 


2 2 


4 


3 3 


6 


4 6 


10 


4 4 


8 


4 5 9 


4 4 


8 


3 3 


6 


3 3 6 


10 


5 15 




Silkies 


4 


4 


4 


5 


(T-6 S-3 C-3) 


12 3 


2 4 


6 


4 3 


7 


4 6 


10 


4 3 


7 


4 3 7 


3 3 


6 


3 3 


6 


3 3 6 




10 


9 


Suit. 


4 


4 


5 


4 


3 3 6 i 






3 


4 3 


7 


3 3 


6 


4 3 


7 


5 3 8 


3 3 


6 


3 3 


6 


9 3 12 


8 


4 12 




Ducksl 


4 


6 


10 




2 2 4 2 2 4 


2 2 4 






4 4 


8 


4 6 


10 


8 4 


12 


2 2 4 


10 4 


14 


12 4 


16 


2 2 4 








Ducks* 


4 


6 


10 




2 2 4 2 2 4 


2 2 4 






4 3 


7 


4 6 


10 


6 4 


10 


2 2 4 


6 4 


10 


6 2 


8 


2 2 4 




15 




Ducks] 


4* 6 


6 




4 3 7 1 5 2 7 


2 






8 4 


12 


3 3 


6 


6 3 


9 


2 2 4 


6 3 


9 


6 3 


9 


2 2 4 








Geese 


41 6 


10 




(T-10 S-4 C-6) 


2 2 4 






6 3 


9 


6 6 


12 


8 4 


12 


2 2 4 


8 4 


12 


10 4 


14 


2 13 








Turk. 


4 18 


4 




2 2 4 | 


2 2 4 




4* 


3 2 


5 


4 6 


10 


4 6 


10 


4 8 12 


5 5 


10 


5 5 


10 


3 2 5 









174 



POULTRY FOR EXHIBITION 



standard weights is one that inevitably works to put the 
general average weight of the breed considerably below 
the standard, while the standard weight and the general 
average weight should be the same, and would be if 
variations from weight were discounted uniformly by one 
principle. The object of the Standard is to establish the 
weights .it fixes as the most common weights and the 
general average weights. But when its rules for judg- 
ing allow such heavy reductions of the standard weights 
before disqualifying for low weight, and give no discounts 
on overweight, the natural effect is to widen the range of 
weights. This comes about because those who maintain 
the standard weights as average weights in their flocks 
must necessarily breed so that about half their stock will 
tend over standard weight and the other half in the 
opposite direction. The weight of the stock as a whole 
is balanced at the point fixed by the Standard just as most 
other qualities are. 

The error of the method of dealing with weight is 
that it tends to make the standard weights the maximum 
and the disqualifying weights the minimum weights for 
a breed, when the standard weight should be the medium 
between the two extremes. The practical way to correct 
the error is to cut in the same proportion for over- 
weight as well as for underweight, also" increasing the 
values of specific cuts for weight double. Thus instead of 
cutting two points per pound for underweight, the cut 
would be at the rate of four points per pound for a vari- 
ation from weight either way. Then on the present valu- 
ation given "weight" in the "scale of points" a specimen 
that went a full pound either under or over weight would 
be disqualified. By the decimal system with valuations of 5 
points per section the application of this rule would be 
more satisfactory because it would be more lenient both 
at the maximum and minimum disqualifying points. 

As it is now, the Standard places no limit on size 
except as the awards are affected by the provision that 
when birds are tied for honors the one nearest standard 
weight shall win. The real check on excessive size is 
the general dislike in America of anything approaching 
coarseness in standard poultry. Under the rule sug- 
gested the range of weights in standard Plymouth Rock 
cocks would be from S',4 to 10-VJ pounds. Now it is 
from 7j4 to 12 pounds. 

The rule, as it would relate to weight, is not ideal, 
because it does not apply equally to different breeds and 
weights, but it reduces the degrees of inconsistency by 
SO per cent, ahd would increase the uniformity of size and 
weight in all varieties at least SO per cent. 

Consideration of Condition in Score-Card Judging 

Under all present systems of judging by score card 
"Condition" is given a general cut made on the general 
appearance of the bird, before detailed sections are con- 
sidered. Consequently, it often happens in practice 
that the judge examining a bird section by section finds 
one or more occasions for further cuts for condition. What 
the judge does in that case depends upon the marks al- 
ready made, and whether he is in a hurry or working 
leisurely. If he has a cut of 1 for general condition, it is 
eas^y to put 14 after it; if a cut of J4. is it easy to put a 1, 
2 or any figure appropriate before it. But if an erasure 
is necessary, and the judge is pressed for time, or if he 
is working with a clerk to mark cards and correction 
might easily lead to confusion and further error, he is 
very apt to put the extra cuts for condition on the sec- 
tions showing faults of condition, which is not only wrong 



in principle, but exaggerates his estimates of faults proper- 
ly chargeable to the section, and is confusing and mis- 
leading to those who try to make the scoring square with 
either general practice or the judge's known general 
tendency in cutting for faults. A very considerable pro- 
portion of common inconsistencies in judging is due 
to this sort of "juggling" the cuts in the interest of speed, 
and to avoid the necessity of stopping to make erasures. 

The difficulties of the situation can be avoided, and 
conditions to which the rule suggested for disqualifications 
will apply made, by simply providing a special column 
for cuts for condition, section by section, and making 
the final cut for condition the sum, of all the sectional 
cuts. . 

Correct Adjustment of the "Scale of Cuts" 

A number of times recently judges have called at- 
tention to the fact that common practice in applying the 
scale of specific cuts given in the Standard gave in many 
cases total scores that were manifestly too low — that is, 
the score as obtained by the score card was much lower 
than a competent judge's impression of the quality of 
the bird would place it at sight. In considering details 
of practice in score-card judging, we have to recognize 
that the final test of the value and general accuracy of 
any system of scoring is the closeness with which the 
results of judging by the card approach expert instantane- 
ous appraisal of the quality of a specimen — provided 
closer inspection shows no bad faults not visible on the 
surface. The judges point out that where no such hidden 
defects are discovered and the bird still falls short of an 
the final cut for condition the sum of all sectional cuts. 

The root of the difficulty in such cases appears to 
lie in taking Yz as the minimum specified cut, and so 
virtually making it the unit of measurement in scoring — 
scaling down — for faults. It seems to apply very well 
to ordinary stock and to competitions where the quality 
is uneven and the winners are easily placed. But in the 
superior grades of stock, and where the closeness of 
competition compels close scrutiny of every point in 
which specimens differ, the general use of the minimum 
cut of Yi, and of that as the factor in the short series of 
cuts which are commonly made will lead to systematically 
heavier cuts on good birds in strong classes. The only 
way to avoid that difficulty is to make the minimum cut 
Y\ and make that fraction the factor in the scale of cuts. 
Doing this would simply be to apply generally the min- 
imum cut introduced in two cases of specific cuts in the 
Standard list in the last revision, and recognized as nec- 
essary in the instructions to judges in that edition. 

Theoretically it would be supposed that to make the 
minimum cut Y\ would mean that such cuts as 34> l/4> 
1^4, etc., would become common, and that where now the 
judge in the ordinary course of cutting for faults makes 
three common grades of faults, which he cuts J4, 1 and 1/4, 
then he would have twice as many grades within the same 
range of values of defects. But on what we know of 
common judging practice there is no reason to suppose 
that it would work out that way. What experience and 
observation indicates as likely to happen is: First, that 
judges will continue to make three common grades of the 
faults they find, and will mark them Y> Vi< an ^ !• w ' tn 
heavier cuts for larger defects than would commonly be 
met in ordinary good-quality exhibition stock. The re- 
sult would be lighter cuts and higher scores on this class 
of stock without materially affecting the scores of spec- 
imens which should be cut more severely. The practical 



LOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN JUDGING PRACTICE 



175 



adjustment of the whole "scale of cuts" to fairly represent 
values in all grades of standard stock depends — as has 
been pointed out — on beginning with correct scores for 
the best birds in strong competition. 

Another effect of making the J4 cut the minimum 
cut and the factor in the scales of cuts would appear when 
scores as first made for a class in which competition was 
close were tested and corrected upon comparison of the 
birds plainly in the running for the prizes whose relative 
positions could be determined only by careful considera- 
tion and estimate of values. In this stage of judging the 
judge would divide the minimum J4 cut as often and as 
far as necessary to establish the differences between com- 
peting birds. In this connection it should be said that 
with competent and careful scoring in which all sections 
and characters are given proper consideration, and the 
minimum cut is J4, the wholesale tying of scores which 
was once a common feature even in comparatively small 
shows under some judges would not often occur, and in a 
lar^e proportion of cases of ties the tie could be broken 
by the rules now obtaining for such cases, or where this 
failed by a similar simple rule, so often that rescoring 
would be necessary only for the leading birds in strong 
competition when observation of the birds as placed by 
the score card showed the need of a review of them to 
make certain that the awards were right. 

IMPBOVED PEACTICAL 

STANDARD POULTRY SCORE CARD 

FOR SINGLE BIRDS 



Name of Association 
Place of Show 
Date of Shonj 




Kxhibitor- 
Variety- 













<r 




tn 










SEX AND AGK &?£-£-• 


CONDITION 


SHAPE 


C O LO H 


ots 


3 






• HA 






CUTS 


SUM 


CUTS 


SUM 


CUTS 


SUM 


CVTS 


SUM 


c 


Comb and Wattles or 
Crest and Beard 






^ 


% 










%l 


Head, Beak, Face, 

Eves and Ear Lobe9 


. " 


4 


_ 


'/, 


. 


ft 


'/d 


Neck 


/ " 


Back 




— 


_ 


& 


_ 


ft 





& 

* 


\l 


Tail 




t 3 /& 


Wings 


— 


— 


. 


'/* 


• 
• 




T 




3 hl 

3 /^ 


Body and Hurt 






« 


'h 


« 


'/* 


— 


>L 


ft 


Legs and Toes 




'U 












6 


< 


Totals 


5 Dibiu Fton 
lit Mt» 


u 


7? 




111 Prill 


6 Otbiri From 
111. Pril. 


6 Oib.fi Froa 
lit Ptlzi 








lODEIIIIFtOI ltd PRIZE 


1&\ 



-SECY. 



A NEWLY ARRANGED SCORE CARD 
In a proper judgment of birds as compared with ideal standards 
COMPLETE ANALYSIS of the bird is of as much importance as 
appropriate cuts for the faults observed. Such an analysis can be 
made only by systematic examination and the only way one can be 
sure he has made such an examination where so many characters are 
involved as in a standard fowl, is by recording his cuts in as much 
detail as is necessary. The score card above shows how this can 
be done with a card making only a few changes in form in the reg- 
ulation score card. 

The special features of this card are — the separation of "Con- 
dition" from "Shape" and "Color," thus distinguishing plainly on 
the record between constitutional faults, or permanent faults, and 
superficial and temporary faults: the division of "Color" to more 
precisely indicate the character of the faults of color observed; and 
the combination of all h>ead points in two sections instead of mak- 



ing five "sections" of them as now. This change in the division 
of the bird into sections is in the interest of more rational judging 
of exhibition specimens and also of placing relatively more empha- 
sis on other parts of the bird and less on head points. 

SYMMETRY as a special section is omitted from the card, be- 
cause symmetry is simply the result of correct shape and propor- 
tions in all sections. 

The division of the columns under "Condition," etc.. provides 
for recording the specific cuts, with the value of each indicated by 
a sign, in the spaces under ' 'Cuts, ' ' and in the spaces under 
"Sum" placing the total value of all cuts made. 

The difference between this card and the regulation card is 
in FORM, not in anything essential. Its object is to indicate every 
cut and the value of it, so that anyone taking a bird and its score 
card can locate the cuts. By the regulation card it does not appear 
whether the numerical cut recorded in any division of any section 
represents one fault or several faults. 

The recording of specific cuts in a small space is made practi- 
cal by using a simple code of signs for the fractions V* and V2 — a 
dot (.) for l A ; and a dash ( — ) for y 2 . Thus if in the space for 
"Cuts" under "Shape" and in the section "Comb and Wattles," 
the record was a dot, a dash, and a figure 1, it would signify that 
the comb and wattles had three faults, one of which was cut V\\ 
one %, and one 1, and the total to be written in the next space un- 
der "Sum" would be 1%. 

The minimum cut prescribed in the Standard is *-£ of a point 
— or simply *4 . By making it the minimum cut the Standard es- 
tablishes J 4 as the specific cut for the character that is nearly 
perfect, but that should have a very slight cut. 

This cut being established, it follows that the next distinct de- 
gree of fault must be cut Vz ; the next % ; the next 1, and so on. 
And the SCALE OF CUTS is really on a V± point basis, except that 
in ordinary practice it is not necessary to make fine distinctions 
except where the faults are least. So we may sav that the ordinary 
working SCALE OF POINTS in score-card judging is as follows: 

For the smallest degree of fault demanding a cut 1/4 

For a more pronounced yet moderate fault 1/2 

For conspicuous but not extreme fault 1 

For grosser faults 2/3 

Simple automatic general rules for disqualifying and debarring 
birds for serious fault may be made by making a total of five cuts 
in any one section disqualify, and applying rules for debarring for 
a given number of cuts, iu any division — as condition, shape, color. 



IMPBOVED PEACTICAL 

STANDARD POULTRY SCORE CARD 



FOR EXHIBITION PENS 



Name of Association. 

Place of Show 

Date of Show 

Exhibitor — 



Variety- 



Age- 



To compete for 1st prize every bird In a pen must be eligible for a 1st prize. 
To compete for 2nd prize every bird Id a pen must be eligible for a 2nd prise. 
The highest scoring female shall be taken as the standard of comparison in 
matching. 





MALE 


F EM ALES 




Band Nos. 


/ 


3 


.2, 


s 


f 


Tttir 
IMMdMI 


Individual Scores 


94, 


if- 


?3'A 


13 


1±'/± 


H-/.J~ 


£ Uniformity ii Following 


CUTS 


SUM 


Q 
< 

b 

< 

Ho 

en* 

z 

LU 

a. 


CUTS 


■nil 


CUTS 


■UH 


CUTS 


III* 




* Size and 

e Condition 


" 


£ 










— 


>L 




°" Type and 

s Conformation 


/ 


/ 










- 


V± 




^ Character of 
t Head 






/ 


/ 






/ 


/ 




2 Character of Color 
e Markings 










' 


ft 








U Even Shade 
* of Color 






— 


>L 


- 


'/* 








£ Totals 




/&. 




i'k 




ft 




.2. 


s-% 


SCORE OF 


PEN'— To 


al Individ 


ual score less pen cuts. 


ts-f'/ 



NEW SCORE CARD FOR PEN 
Applying the same ideas to pen scoring we have the card as 
shown herewith. Because the birds in & pen, and the females in par- 
ticular must match, one hen — the best — should be taken as the 
standard. The birds* total individual scores count as shown on the 
card. Then deductions are made for each bird (except the female 
used as the pen standard) for faults in matching in the particulars 
listed in the wide column at the left. The) sums of all these cuts, de- 
ducted from the total of individual scores gives the score of the pen. 
The assumed scores in this case represent a very well-matched pen. 



Angle of Vision, Effect of 110 

Beaks,. Crooked 33 

Beaks and Bills, Treatment of 119 

Bleaching, Detecting 134 

Bleaching White Birds 133 

Body, Wrong Carriage of 33 

Brahmas, 1875 Description of Light 155 

Brahmas, 1867 Description of 155 

Brahmas, Points in 154 

Brahmas, Points in Light 157 

Breasts, Crooked 32 

Breeder and His "Handiwork," The 27 

Catch a Fowl, The Right Wav to 50 

Catch. Penning Birds in Small Space to.... 52 

Catching Poultry, Gentleness in 50 

Changes in Color with Age, Examples 

of Common 38 

In Blacks and Whites 40 

In Buff and Red Varieties 39 

In Parti-Colors with Buff, Bay or 

Red Ground 39 

In the Black and White Mottled 

Varieties 38 

In the Ermine Color Pattern 38 

Where Undesirable White Ap- 
pears First : 40 

Chicks, Faults Noticeable in 32 

Chicks Not to Crowd, Teaching 31 

Chicks: Which to Cull and When 30 

Color Faults in Fowls: 78 

Barred Varieties 94 

Dominiques 97 

Hamburgs (Penciled) *. 98 

Rocks 94 

Black Varieties 80 

Blue or Blue-Laced Pattern 91 

Buff Varieties 81 

Oampines 98 ' 

Cornish, The Dark 87 

Ermine Color Pattern 98 

Games, Black and Red Exhibition .... 89 

Laced Varieties 89 

Bantam, Sebright 91 

Buff Laced 91 

Laced Polish 91 

Laced Wyandottes 90 

Red Laced White 91 

Miscellaneous Color Patterns 100 

Bantams, Game * 101 

Bantams, Gray Japanese 101 

Buttercup 101 

Dorking, Colored 101 

Faverolles, Salmon 101 

Games, Birchen 101 

Games, Exhibition 101 

Leghorns, Red Pyle 101 

Polish, White-Crested Black 101 

Mottled, Spangled and Speckled 

Varieties 92 

Spangled 93 

Speckled 93 

Sussex, Speckled 93 

Partridge Varieties 8fi 

Penciled Varieties 85 

Black-Red 85 

Black-White 86. 

Red Varieties 83 

Silver and Silver Gray 89 

Silver-Penciled Varieties 86 

Stippled Varieties 87 

Games and Game Bantams — Black 

and Red Exhibition 89 

White Varieties 78 

"Color Feeding," Special 41 

Color More Difficult to Hold Than 

Shape 37 

Color, Some Effects of Common Feeds on 44 

Combs, Faults in 33 

Combs, Making Over Bad 24 

Combs, Surgical Operations on 118 

Condition in Score-Card Judging, Con- 
sideration of 174 

Cooping the Birds at the Show 143 

Coops, Conditioning and Training 57 

Coops, Returning Birds to 52 

Coops, Shipping 141 

Coops, Taking Birds from 52 

Culls, Good Breeders have Few 29 

Cutting for Defects, The Per Cent 

Method of 158 

Decimal Scale 162 

"Decimal System" of Score-Card 

Judging. The 161 

Deformities, How Wrong Conditions Cause 30 
Differences in Young and Old Birds. 

Normal 37 

Disqualifications and Defects: 59 

Back 62 

Beaks and Bills 61 

Beards and Muffs 61 

Bills, Beaks and 61 

Breast, Body and Fluff 64 

Combs 61 

Crests 61 

Ear Lobes 61 

Eyes, Heads and 62 

'Pace 61 

Heads and Eyes 62 

Legs and Toes 65 

Legs, Smooth 66 

Legs, Feathered 67 

Neck 62 

Tail 63 



INDEX 

Toes, Legs and 65 

Wattles 61 

Weight 67 

Wings T 63 

Disqualifications and Defects, Breed 67 

Anconas 75 

Andalusians, Blue 74 

Bantams, Booted 78 

Brahma 78 

Cochin 78 

Game 77 

Japanese 78 

Malay 78 

Mille Fleur Booted 78 

Polish 78 

Rose Comb 78 

Sebright 78 

Brahmas 71 

Buckeyes 70 

Buttercups 77 

Campines 77 

Cochins 71 

Cornish 76 

Crevecoeurs and La Fleche 75 

Dorkings 75 

Dominiques, American 70 

Faverolles 75 

Frizzles 78 

Games, Exhibition 77 

Hamburgs 77 

Houdans 75 

Javas 70 

La Fleche, Crevecoeurs and 75 

Langshans 72 

Leghorns 72 

Malays 78 

Minorcas 73 

Orpingtons 75 

Plymouth Rocks 67 

Polish 77 

Redcaps 77 

Rhode Island Reds 70 

Silkies 78 

Spanish, Black 74 

Sultans 78 

Sumatras, Black 77 

Sussex 75 

Wyandottes 69 

Disqualifications — Their Use and Misuse. .170 

Dorkings, Points in Colored 154 

Points in Silver Gray 154 

Points in White 154 

Down, Removal of Stubs and 24 

Down, Treatment for Stubs and 122 

Dryer, Construction of Rawnsley 133 

Ducks: Color and Color Pattern Faults.... 103 
Black and Black-and-White 

Varieties 104 

Blue Varieties 104 

Buff Varieties : 104 

Fawn and White 105 

Rouen Penciled 106 

White Varieties 103 

Disqualifications and Defects: 102 

Avlesbury 102 

Black East India 103 

Blue Swedish 103 

Buff 103 

Call 103 

Cayuga 103 

Crested White 103 

Indian Runner 103 

Muscovy 103 

Pekin 102 

Rouen 102 

Ear Lobes and Faces, Treatment of 118 

Eyes Should Match in Color 34 

Examination. Order in Systematic 58 

Exhibition Form, Character of Soil and.... 48 

Exhibition Pens. Matching Ill 

Exhibition Stock Needs More Room .... 28 
Exhibitor. The Novice's Chances as an.... 16 

Exhibitor's Kit. The 143 

Exhibits of Poultry. The Earliest 7 

Exhibits in Single-Bird Classes, Uni- 
formity of 112 

F.iding, Prevention of 25 

Feathers. Effect of Heat on Growth of.... 46 

Fluffing and Bending 136 

Giving Luster to 137 

Humane Wav to Pull. The 56 

In Black Birds. Dyeing White 138 

Removing of "Foul." and Coloring.. 24 
Removing Tips or Edges of Dif- 
ferent Color 138 

Splicing 137 

Splicing Tail and Wing 24 

When to Remove Unmolted and 

Damaged 56 

Feeding for Rapid Increase in Weight 

and Growth of Plumage 113 

Feet. Treatment of Shanks and 119 

Geese: Disqualifications and Defects 

African 106 

Canadian or Wild .107 

Chinese 107 

Egyptian 107 

Emden 106 

Toulouse 106 

Hatching, Timely 28 

Head Parts, Damaged 62 



Head Points, Fitting, Fixing, and 

Faking 117 

Individual Attention, Importance of 29 

Inspection, How to Hold Birds for 52 

Judge, Thoroughness of the Poultry 19 

Judges, Suggestions to 157 

Judging by the Standard, Methods of .... 18 
Consideration of Condition in 

Score-Card 174 

Consideration of Size and Weight iu.,173 

Improvement in Score-Card „..160 

In Progress. Matters Relating to 145 

Merits and Faults of Score-Card 20 

Standard Descriptions as the 

Basis of 17 

Status of Comparison 22 

The Actual Process of Score-Card ...162 
"Decimal System" of Score-Card. ...161 

The Return to Comparison 164 

Why Different Methods Give 

Slightly Different Scores in 20 

Leghorns, 1867 Description of White 156 

Leghorns, 1875 Description of White 156 

Leghorns. Points in White 156 

Legs, Coloring and Staining 121 

Legs, Ordinary Cleaning and Polishing of. .120 
Lice on Development of Exhibition 

Stock. Effect of 46 

Lights, Effect of Different 109 

Molt, Supervising the 53 

Molting Is an Advantage, When Pre- 
mature 56 

Molting, Partial 54 

Plumage Color, Uncertainty of Devel- 
opment of 34 

Dyeing Buff and Red 138 

Effects of Sun and Shade on 47 

Purple Barring in Black 138 

Posing, Training and 114 

Quality. The Heritage of 28 

Quills, Removing Black from White 138 

Sanitary Conditions, General 49 

Scale of Cuts, Correct Adjustment of the.. 174 
Scales of Credits— "Scales of Points" 

— and Scales of Cuts 168 

Scoring, How Standard Descriptions 

Affected 154 

Selection of Adult Birds, Early 35 

Self-Consciousness in Beautiful Birds 27 

Selling Faked Specimens, About 26 

Shanks and Feet, Treatment of 119 

Show, At the Close of the 147 

Care of Birds After Return from 152 

Cooping the Birds at the 143 

General Care of Birds at the 145 

Grooming the Birds at the 144 

Shows at Agricultural Fairs, Great 

Poultry 14 

Benefit Near-by Exhibitors, How 

Permanent Large 13 

Character of Competition of Dif- 
ferent Classes of 15 

Great Exposition Poultry 14 

Methods of Shipping to 139 

The Beginning of Permanent Big .... 9 

The Risks in Promoting Poultry 8 

Timing Shipments to 139 

Side Sprigs. Regarding the Removal of.... 23 
Single Birds and Matching Pens, 

Trying Out : 109 

Size and Weight in Judging, Consid- 
eration of 173 

Soil and Exhibition Form, Character of.... 48 

Spanish Fowls, Points in 154 

Spurs, Trimming 121 

Standard Poultry. "Points" in 154 

Standard, The "Best Bird" As a 160 

Stubs and Down, Removal of 24 

Stubs and Down, Treatment for 122 

"Symmetry" Historically and Tech- 
nically 159 

Teaching Chicks Not to Crowd 31 

Toenails, Trimming 122 

Training and Posing 114 

Turkeys: Disqualifications and Defects ....107 

Black 108 

Bourbon Red 109 

Bronze 108 

Narragansett 108 

Slate 108 

White Holland 108 

Turkeys and Waterfowl, How to Catch.... 51 

Type, How to Hold Correct 36 

The Adult Type is the Standard .... 36 
With Age, Usual Changes in 36 

Unfair Practices, Review of Efforts 

to Prevent 25 

Further Observations on the Dif- 
ficulties of the Question 25 

Washing and Bleaching. Relations of 23 

Colored Fowls 135 

Poultry for Exhibition 122 

White Orpingtons at Morris Farm. ...131 
Waterfowl, How to Catch Turkeys and.... 51 

Wings, Slipped and Twisted 33 

Wings, Wrong Carriage of 33 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 
II II llll Ill II lllil II 



002 838 808 



L 



